Mystery Guy
by YellowRosesAndHearts
Summary: When the team looks into the 2003 death of a 16 year old highschool junior, they find the trail leads to love interests and family secrets. LS UST. FINALLY DONE.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first attempt at a casefile. And even though I've plotted it out to a tee in preparation, I'm a bit uneasy. I usually write thoughts, not action, so this is a bit out of the way for me. So feedback is appreciated. And, hint pay attention to the people introduced. They do matter eventually.**

**Disclaimer: I would never insult cold case by trying to pass this off as theirs. lol.**

**_October 12th, 2003_**

_They've been planning this party for Renee for weeks—it's her sweet sixteen, and her friends could think of no better place to spend it than the coffee shop that has quickly become Renee's favorite place. _

_Renee is one of the youngest students in her Junior class of 2005 at the high school for creative and Performing arts. She's on the "creative" end of that, a writing major who is making a name for herself among the others in her department. As a Sophomore, she delivered several knock out pieces to the schools literary magazine, and, as a junior, her promise is unlimited. She's also known for her looks; half Italian and half black, but so exotic looking that no one can place her. More than anything, she's well liked. Jayla's been her best friend since grade six, and this year, Jayla decided that it was time to do something to show Renee how much she appreciated her, because she rarely said it._

_Renee is blindfolded at the top of the stairs, and led slowly down toward the basement, a well stocked room with eclectic furniture, that is currently decorated with streamers that Jayla has laboriously begged the manager to allow. As Renee is inched closer, the distant sound of "Harder to breathe" a new Maroon 5 song, grows louder. And louder. When Jayla reaches the bottom of the stairs, the music is turned off, and Renee's blindfold is yanked off. _

_Around her, suddenly, there is a load roar, and a cloud of her friends running at her. _

"_I can't believe you!" Renee screams, faking anger through a huge smile. "You assholes have been plotting right under my nose!"_

_Across the room, Jayla isn't fooled at all. "You're damn right we have. Now shut up if you want your cake."_

"_You've got cake? Then all is forgiven."_

_Renee looks to the left suddenly, feeling eyes on her. She sees a young Last Drop employee staring at her, "James" by his nametag. Renee smiles, nods, and looks at the ground, uncomfortable._

_A pair of arms suddenly appear around her waist, and, turning, she shyly kisses Ryan on the cheek. His lips appear next to her ear as he whispers huskily, "Happy sixteenth, girl."_

_Color rises in Renee's cheeks as she untangles herself from the embrace. He gives her a questioning look. "What? I don't even get a hug on your birthday?"_

_She laughs and quips, "You just got a kiss. Now I'm gonna have to go to the doctors and make sure I don't have SARS."_

"_I'm gonna get you later, girl…"_

"_I look forward to it."_

_She travels to the other side of the room swaying her hips side to side and looking back at him—he licks his lips, and laughs as she embarrassedly looks away._

_Jayla materializes next to her, and drapes an arm over her shoulder. "Ryan, huh? Have you seen how pissed Eli is? Look at him. Dude's on a war path."_

"_Don't. Me and Ryan aren't anything, and me and Eli? Even less than anything. Ancient history, my friend."_

"_So nothings going on with hot senior boy with the 'hypnotic voice'?"_

_Renee blushes and turns away, and Jayla laughs. "That's right. I knew who that blog was about. Who didn't? So there's really nothing?"_

"_Let me say this the only way I know how. The only thing I'm commited to right now is being single."_

_Jayla raises her bottle of coke to tap against Renee's mug of coffee. "To playing the field."_

_Renee laughs, "And to the best sweet sixteen a friend could cook up with no parental help, less than ten dollars, and a lopsided cake."_

"_Touche."_

**_November 1st, 2003_**

_Renee is lying dead on the bottom of a cliff in a park. A folder is placed in a large box, labeled _Hutchinson, R.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a bad morning for Lilly. She was up way too early, and once having woken could not get back to sleep. And then, she'd nearly had a heart attack when one of her cats had wandered off out of sight for the fifth time that week. She turned out to only be hiding in the vestibule, but still, Lilly was in no mood to go into cardiac arrest and die that day. After all, she had to be in to work by nine.

Then, the coffee machine had stopped working, and even after that, she ran out of shampoo, forcing her to tie her hair back in that clip she'd sworn herself to retire two years ago. She left a piece of it in her face for defiance, a reminder to herself and everyone around her that she may have been a cop, but she was still a woman—a fact that she had recently been asserting, for no other reason besides that she didn't have anything better to do.

She was forty five minutes earlier leaving the house than usual, figuring on using the extra time to buy breakfast and get the cup of coffee that she so desperately needed.

After being shoved around in the long line at Metropolitan café for more that twenty minutes, she finally ordered a poppy seed bagel, and an extra large coffee. Yes, extra large. She needed it to accompany the awful morning she was having.

As she fished out her cash from her purse, a voice behind her said, "It's on me." A black-sleeved arm reached over her and laid five dollars on the counter. She knew that voice. And suddenly, things were looking up.

"Hey, Scotty… thanks."

"No worries. I probably owe you at least twenty dollars anyway."

"Thirty-five, last I counted." At his confused face, she laughed. "Joke, meet Scotty. Scotty, meet joke. You don't owe me anything."

He followed her to the booth in the corner, a spot where Lilly always sat in the mornings.

"There a reason you're here this early, Lil?"

She decided to spare him the details of her morning, realizing that a man wouldn't understand the reason why it bothered her so much. "Up early."

"Hmmm…"

"So what about you? You're usually late… god knows how many times I've covered your ass."

"I actually didn't sleep at all."

"Oh…" Lilly raised her eyebrows suggestively. "You have some sexy brunette keeping you up? Janie, perhaps?" Janie was a new receptionist working in the records room, and it was common knowledge that she had a thing for Scotty. Made sense, Lilly thought. All things considered, Scotty was a pretty decent guy. Decent and physically attractive, which never hurt anyone, including her.

Scotty raised his eyes to hers, and Lilly realized the utter stupidity to that question. It wasn't like she'd ever want to know, anyway.

"You don't have to…"

Scotty laughed. "I'm sorry. I just had to see your expression if I did that."

She reached her arm across the table and shoved him, as hard as her petite frame would allow. "Not cool, Scotty."

"Besides, recently I've been more partial to blondes. Recently." He locked his brown eyes with her blue ones, raising an eyebrow. This was classic Valens. He flirted with absolutely every eligible woman he came in contact with, some of the ineligible ones, too. Lilly knew this, but she couldn't stop the inexplicable warmth that spread through her. A lesser woman might have blushed, but Lilly simply smiled.

"Good, so have I."

A glance at the wall let Lilly know that it was time to get to the office. The extra large coffee on the table had barely been touched, but Lilly felt more energized than she had in at least a week just from the expression on Scotty's face.

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There were basically two types of weeks for the Philadelphia Cold Case Squad—ones so busy that they could barely find time for breaks, and ones so boring that there was nothing to do _but_ take breaks. This week was one of the latter, a five day span in which the team had done little but update paperwork. And, eventually, update updates of paperwork. All things considered, Lilly hated these kinds of weeks, and by the end of them, she was so desperate for a case that she'd take one in North Dakota if it was offered. Who cared if it was a little out of Philly's jurisdiction?

And so she was relieved when she saw a young woman sitting in the lobby, and overjoyed, when she saw Stillman's nod toward her.

"Detectives Rush and Valens." She introduced them.

"Hi… I'm Laina Hutchinson. I'm here about my sister… she died three years ago."

Valens spoke up. "Renee Hutchinson. Found dead in Fairmount and thought to be a suicide."

"It _wasn't._"

Lilly, well versed in current events as she was, had no idea what the hell either of them were talking about.

"How did she die?"

"At the bottom of a ditch in Fairmount. Teenager, guy working the case decided it was a suicide, closed it pretty quick," Scotty answered.

"Maybe too quick?"

The girl looked at the pair of them, staring hard, trying to get her point across. "I knew my sister. She wouldn't have… I was thirteen when she died, detectives. My mom's been keeping me from coming down here ever since then, but I know. I know she didn't do what everyone says she did. _Please_, detectives."

Lilly exchanged a look with Scotty, who, with a shrug of his shoulder, seemed to indicate, _why not?_

"We'll look into it."

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Lilly ran her hand across the row of boxes stacked across the records room.

"Hulder, Hurricane, Garrison… she's not here, Scotty."

"You sure? It was just three years ago, it's gotta be…"

"I'm old, Scotty. Not blind."

Scotty laughed. "You're definitely not old."

"Not old? I'm older than you, kid."

"Four years! And you won't ever let me forget it."

"It's not a big deal now, thirty two and thirty six, but when I'm forty and you're my age, you'll be holding that cake that says 'Over the hill'."

"Alright, Gram. Scoot over so I can see if you're losing your vision."

But after Scotty failed to find the box as well, the two of them sat, stumped, for a moment.

"Lil, maybe it's in one of the folders?"

"If that's all they've got on it, then I'm gonna have to say that Laina made a good call on this one."

And of course, not too far into the box, lay Renee's Case folder, thin even for that, labeled 'Hutchinson' on the front. Scotty opened it and began to read. "No interviews, no suspects, no hunches, no witnesses… a small unidentifiable residue was taken from her cheek and never tested… leaves you to wonder what the hell they _did _do."

"Lead officer on the case?" Lilly chirped.

Scotty turned to the front page. "A Gregory Johnson."

Lilly sat at the computer nearby, and typed in the name. "Fall 2003 was a bad season for this guy. Divorce, Custody battle… a DUI that was later resolved, you know what that means."

"Swept under the rug."

"Of course."

"Looks like today's gonna be a bad day for him too. What say we drop Gregory a little visit?"

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It was two o'clock by the time Rush and Valens were sauntering into the 29th precinct, attracting looks from the other cops in every direction. Both were more than a bit uncomfortable, but the two walked to the front desk.

"Detectives Rush and Valens. We're here to see a Gregory Johnson. He in today?"

As the kid at the desk pointed numbly past Lilly, a voice from behind her spoke up. "That's me."

Lilly smiled her thanks to the kid, who nodded slowly back, gawking at her as if he'd never seen a female in his life, or at the very least, in the workplace, which was probably more accurate.

"We need to discuss a case with you, is there somewhere private we can go?"

Johnson laughed, "Anything you can discuss with me can be discussed with everybody else."

Scotty tried, really, really tried, to be nice. "It's best if we do this in private."

"What? Best for me to have witnesses, I say. Come on, you talk to me here, you don't talk to me at all."

Lilly pushed through the crowd of police officers crowding Johnson and Scotty, and laid a hand on Valens' shoulder that he knew meant, _I got this._

_Poor guy_, Scotty thought. There was nothing worse in the Police Department for a guy cop than getting their asses handed to them by a woman. And Lilly, delicate-looking and pretty as she was, just made the punch that much worse.

"It's about a 2003 case, Detective. Do you remember what happened in 2003, because I'd be happy to refresh your memory." Lilly leaned closer to him, but as her voice got quieter, it got more intense. "Look, I had a bad morning today and I'm not feelin' particularly merciful. But I'm gonna give you one shot, detective. _Do not make me embarrass you._"

Johnson seemed to have forgotten Valens was there, and instead, stared down Lilly, evaluating her seriousness.

"There's a little courtyard out back."

"Good man," Lilly replied.

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Scotty left no time for small talk. "We're looking into the death of Renee Hutchinson, November, 03. And we couldn't help but notice how _thin _the file is."

Johnson shrugged. "Point?"

Lilly leaned forward. "This case was everywhere for a minute. Everyone was talking about it, and it just strikes me as strange that there would appear to be so little work on it."

"You read my file. You know what was going on with me then. I just…"

Scotty nodded. "I know, you were distracted. Look, we're not here to bash you. And we're willing to keep this quiet. Just give us whatever you know."

"One thing I noted, right before I closed it… a friend of the family moved away a few days after she died."

"So?"

"So, they were lifelong friends with these people and they didn't even stay for the funeral. Strikes me as odd."

"You got any names on that?"

"The Myles. Their daughter, Jayla, was the girls' best friend."

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"Hey Lil," Scotty called. "Come look at this."

Lilly put her latest newspaper on the girls' death down, and headed over to Scotty, who was on the computer. She placed her chin on his shoulder and began to read the page he pulled up.

"You found our girl."

"I knew I was good for something."

Lilly laughed. "Oh, shut it. Jayla didn't go too far, only six or so hours away… working in a night bar in Boston."

"And the boss has got train tickets for us… looks like we're spending the night away, Lil."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Now, the story starts to move a bit. Beginning has a lot of LS, end has a lot of case. And I meant to note this in my last chapter, I mentioned 'fairmount' which is where Renee was found. For those who don't know much about Philly, it's a huge park. **_

_**AN2—Thanks to Longislanditalian2, artificiallysweet, and Seeingstars27 for reviewing. The reviews make me finish. **_

Scotty had hated long rides for as long as he could remember. When he was a kid, his mom would never spring for plane tickets, finding them wasteful, and instead, they would leave two and three days early, always in the wee hours of the morning. After they were a half hour or so late, his mother would break out her Half English, half Spanish phrases.

_Vaminos, _she'd say. Hurry, Hurry, _Rapido! _And that meant that if you weren't in the car in thirty seconds flat, you had another thing coming. And then they'd pack up the old Chevy, suitcases in the trunk, with a cooler full of sandwiches that always tasted bad less than three hours in. And so as he got older, he took planes everywhere, even places not so far like New York, just because he hated the long rides that much.

Lilly entered the train a few minutes after he did, armed with a back pack full of clothes and a bag of McDonalds food. She'd taken off her jacket for the train ride, and now was wearing her typical tailored back pants, and a red tank top that made her look impossibly long. She had her hair back in that messy clip that she'd worn a few years back, and, at present was either ignoring the stares of the men on the train, or was extremely preoccupied. Scotty hoped it was the latter, because he wasn't sure Lil would take kindly to the fact that he was one of them.

She plopped into the seat next to him, and held out the paper bag to him. "Dinner is served. Take what you want. I wasn't sure what you liked, so I bought a few selections."

He found himself a bit touched at that, and wound up withdrawing a cheeseburger and fries. "You didn't have to… I woulda got us dinner, Lil."

"I know. Which is why I had to beat you to it. Now, shut up and eat."

He smiled at that, the knowledge that over the last two years, Lilly Rush had lost none of her spirit. He liked that about her, how independent she was, even as he sometimes hated her need to assert it with him. But that was Lilly anyway—a walking contradiction and spending time with her was never anything close to mundane.

"I hate long rides," he said.

"Really? I like them… the quiet time gives me the chance to sleep, or talk or just think… Nothing's expected."

That response surprised him, but it shouldn't have. Lilly mapped out every minute of every day to be doing something. It was only natural she'd enjoy the time to just sit and do nothing.

"And speaking of sleep I only got three hours last night," she said, leaning back, "And I can't believe you got the window seat. Where'm I supposed to put my head now?"

Lilly leaned back in her chair, wriggling as she tried to find a comfortable position, then gave up and sat straight, drifting her eyes closed.

"Those are the breaks, Lil. You can lay on the shoulder if you like."

Behind her curtain of closed eyes, Lilly laughed. "I think I'll take my chances with the chair."

Forty five minutes in, and that was no longer the case when Lilly shifted in her sleep and dropped her head on his shoulder. Scotty inwardly laughed at what she would say when she woke up—he was betting that she would try to find a way to blame him for it, as if he'd somehow roped her into it. In the meantime, though, seeing her this peaceful was disarming. And even though he knew she might verbally, or physically, castrate him for it later, he put his head easily on hers and decided to enjoy the ride.

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The bar where Jayla Myles worked was a tiny hole-in-the wall sort of place so thick with smoke that it made Scotty, for the time being, a total supporter for the imminent smoking ban back in Philadelphia. It was stocked mostly with middle aged men drinking beer, but there was the occasional young woman who gave Scotty the eye, when they thought he didn't notice. The clock read eight when they first walked in, and eight twenty by the time they finally saw her, not behind the bar as was expected, but up on a pole, which they had not.

"Close your mouth before the something crawls inside, Scotty."

"They didn't say— by 'night' bar they meant…"

"Scotty, stop. It's not like you've never been in one of these establishments anyway, I know you… and I think I'll give you the pleasure of talking her down from there, while I get a drink…"

Normally, he'd have no problem with something like this at all, but in front of Lil… there wasn't one iota of a shot, and they both knew it. Scotty grabbed Lilly by her wrist and hauled her over there with him, reaching in his pocket and brandishing his police badge. Lilly walked over to his other side and called up.

"Jayla Myles? Philly PD."

"I'm kinda busy right now, in case you hadn't noticed…"

"We're here about Renee, Jayla."

Scotty had never seen such a swift change on someone's face. She hopped off of that damn pole like it was made of fire, sensual act gone. In that split second, and after that, Scotty would swear that he stopped seeing a nearly twenty year woman and started instead seeing a sixteen year old girl again.

"What about her? I thought ya'll had decided what happened."

Lilly was confused. "Decided?"

"You know. That cop that worked it the first time decided she killed herself before the body was even cold. Useless, if you ask me."

Scotty nodded, because the girl was right—it was exactly the same impression he was getting. "We agree with you. Which is why we're looking into it again. But with no help, we don't get any further than last time. And something tells me you don't want that."

Jayla at first looked puzzled, then annoyed, then hesitant, then tentative. And then, finally, forthcoming as she leaned back against the bar and replied, "What do you want to know?"

Lilly flicked her hair out of her eyes. "Let's start with why your family moved away so fast."

"Well, um… I was… broken, after Renee died. I didn't know what to do with myself, I was throwing up, I was hurting myself… my parents, they didn't think it was a good idea for me to go to her funeral, or—I don't know, even be around that environment anymore. And so we left. I thought it was only supposed to be a few days, but my parents never looked back."

"Can you think of any reasons why anyone would want to hurt Renee? A boyfriend, maybe? Someone competing for her attention?"

Jayla laughed. "She was magnetic. Any guy with a pulse would have loved a chance with her… but no official boyfriend. She liked it that way. But you know? Have you checked out her myspace yet?"

"Her what?"

"Her mom never got rid of it, it's up as this sort of memorial… but everything's just as she left it, all her blogs, her pictures… you wanna know how Renee was, you'll look at that. Myspace dot com, slash secrets are evil."

Scotty nodded. "All right, thanks for the help… here's my card, if you think of anything else."

The two of them left the bar, Lilly laughing. "Take my card…"

"I say that to everyone, Lil."

"I know. But the mental image of you handing your card to a stripper… you wait till I tell Vera."

"Tell Vera what?"

"The truth. That you gave your phone number to a stripper."

"Cute."

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Lilly's first reaction to the hotel room was that it was tiny. The Philly PD was on a severe budget, and that resulted in an efficiency type deal that had two beds but not much else. There was a partition curtain in the center of the room, between the beds. She claimed the bed by the window by dumping her backpack and her purse on it, and then set off for the Laptop that she had left in the trunk of the cab.

"What was the address? Myspace, secrets are evil?"

"All one word, Lil. Damn, somebody's not computer literate."

"Shut your shit."

"Your extensive vocabulary astounds me."

Lilly pushed him hard on the shoulder as the page came up, with a background of violent red and orange swirl, and a small headshot of Renee as the default picture.

Lilly scrolled down the page. "Last login, 8/25/06."

"Jayla said her mom was using it as some kind of memorial… look. 'Never forgotten, Renee, love Ryan.' And 'I never meant to hurt you, love Dante.'"

" 'I never meant to hurt you?' Click on him…"

"Dante, 23 years old… so twenty when Renee died."

"Not related, not her boyfriend, but he's still the top on his friends list. Lot of love."

"Or a sizable amount of guilt."

Lilly arrowed back to Renee's page, finding a list of blog entries at the top. She clicked on one labeled, 'Weekend Schedule' dated October 15th.

_Every weekend in the fall is the same. Get up on Saturday's at eight, follow dad down to the field to watch the game, inwardly cheer my heart out. Keep conference A's stats on little scraps of paper, chat with the referee's who are only nice to me because of dad, watch Laina, who, at thirteen is more flirtatious than I am, which is saying something. Then when Conference B takes the field, throw the ball around with Dad's relatively young assistant coach, and look forward to the one good throw I always make, and getting shoved over his shoulder and paraded around, which always kicks ass. Then, on Sundays, watch the Eagles play on channel 29 for over four hours. In the fall, I eat, live, and breathe football._

Scotty grinned boyishly. "Sounds like my kinda girl."

Lilly looked underneath the blog, and noticed a familiar picture next to a comment which read, 'That's my girl. You get yourself ready for next week. And if you play your cards right, you might get the parade-around more than once. –D.'

"That's who Dante is. One of the coaches for her dad…assistant coach in '03."

"And he says he hurt her. Emotional, obviously, but she doesn't go into the depths of their friendship… seems pretty no strings from her description, but an older guy? Maybe he wanted something out of her that she couldn't give."

"Maybe… Hey, look at this. 'I don't know what to do anymore'…"

"Cry for help? Click in…"

_I knew I knew you, even before I really did. I knew we were the same somehow. Maybe that's why I kept coming back. It's insane, but I know you felt the same way about me. I could tell by the way you looked through me, like a laser, and I was sure that when I went home, I'd find little black holes where your focus had been. And so I'd watch you from behind my cup of coffee, and just think. And on that day when we finally spoke, I knew I was right all along. But being right maybe wasn't in my best interest, because now? I just don't know what to do with myself._

"Intense… look at this comment, Scotty. Somebody who calls himself "Mystery guy". 'And likewise. You're not alone in that, in any of that. We should meet sometime… when my mom doesn't know, me doing this, it hurts her, but she doesn't understand it's not about her. So…tomorrow night, maybe?'. Who is this kid? Profile? Wow…"

"What?"

"Nothing, that's what. No age, no school, no pictures, no comments… what was the point of him even having this thing?"

"To talk to our victim. Can you give me a date on the last comment?"

"Er… Halloween, 03."

"So, we don't know anything about this guy except that he was set to meet Renee the day she died."

_**Next chapters a bunch of LS to get it out of the way, then lots of case. If you have time, please R&R. And if anyone notices any plot holes, I'd love to know.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Okay, this is a connector chapter designed for me to get out several minute details that will be important later. But I was not feeling inspired at all. Beginning is lots of LS. Then, case.**_

**_AN2--Thanks to artificially sweet, seeingstars27, Longislanditalian2, and jambled for reviewing the last chapter._**

Lilly couldn't sleep. That was the problem with her—her sleeping patterns sucked. If she got too little, she was hazy all day. And if she got too much, she could damn it all to hell. And with the addition of her nap during the train ride that afternoon, there was nothing to do but sit on her side of the partition, read, and hope not to wake up Scotty.

Lilly didn't know it, but Scotty couldn't sleep either, for an entirely different reason. He was itching to go somewhere, do something. It didn't make much sense to him to be in a city he didn't pay to go to, in a hotel all expenses paid, with a perfectly attractive woman less than twenty feet away, without taking advantage of it. He didn't know if Lilly would consent to go anywhere with him, but he decided that it was worth a shot.

"Hey, Lil. Lil?"

Lilly rolled over and didn't answer.

"Lilly, are you sleeping?"

"Yes, Scotty, that's why I'm answering you."

Laughter from the other side of the partition. "I wanna go out."

Lilly knew exactly what he meant, but messing with Scotty's mind was way too much fun not to do. "Then go."

"C'mon, Lil. It's Friday night, we're up in hotel we didn't have to pay for in an awesome city… and we're just sitting here playing house. Don't you see a problem with that?"

"No. But for the moment, I'll bite."

"You like to dance, Lil?"

"Oh, no. No. No. No. I'm not going dancing with you, Valens."

He couldn't see her face through the curtain, but he could almost hear her rueful smile, which told him there might be a tiny possibility.

"Come on, Old-head, live a little. I know you aren't gonna be asleep anytime soon."

"Whatever Scotty…" She sighed. On the one hand, she didn't want to blur the professional line any more than she always did, but on the other, she knew she would regret not taking this opportunity later, and Lilly hated regrets. How many times would she ever have this again? "You're always trying to push something…two hours, and not a minute more, got it?"

Thirty five minutes later, and Scotty was hitting one of his natural highs. Lilly had changed out of her work clothes and into a pair of jeans that he would not have pegged her to have owned. But a lot of things about her were surprising him tonight—the first one being the fact that she could actually dance, matching her steps for his, even challenging him past her. Back in Philadelphia, they had embarked on an intellectual battle of the wills, and here, they had the physical version. And Lilly's two hour curfew would up almost doubled, collapsed completely by her own volition. But for Scotty, the best part of the night was the end, when they collapsed on the hotel room couch at three am. Her porcelain skin was flushed like cotton candy, and her smile was nothing like the calculated one he was used to seeing—it was genuine, unrehearsed, and above everything else, feminine. He certainly liked bad-ass, take-no-shit Detective Rush, but the woman she was off hours, Lilly, might have had something on her.

"I can't believe you did that—you coulda got us in so much shit!" Lilly was doubling over in laughter.

"Me? You dared me to…"

"Since when do you listen to me?"

He shrugged. "May as well throw you off occasionally…"

Comfortable silence fell over them for a little while, as both tried to gather their strength to get up. Lilly cocked her head to the side, and appraised him through her blue eyes.

"Hey, Scotty?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for pushing it."

Just like that, she disappeared behind the curtain, leaving Scotty more gratified than he'd been in a long while.

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Cases with young victims got under Will Jeffries' skin. And even more than that, cases that didn't receive due attention. The Renee Hutchinson case was both these things—the murder of a pretty young teenager, who by all descriptions was living the dream—her case didn't get the time of day because the guy working it was too caught up in his own drama. Will hated that.

From what he heard from Vera, Rush and Valens had gone to talk to the guy, who admitted that he had been off his game in '03. Lilly and Scotty, the youngest and the newest to Homicide were more willing to forgive the mistake, while he and Vera shared the combined opinion that half the battle of being a cop was being able to put your personal shit aside.

But not even Vera, cynical as anything, was as insane with this ideal as Jeffries. Will had seen first hand a few months ago what the cost of bad police work could be, with the Tibbs case and execution. And since then, he had very little patience with it. Sure, everyone was allowed a mistake or two, but deciding a girl commited suicide without an ounce of evidence? Putting a family through that? There were times when an "I'm sorry" simply was not enough.

Presently, he and Vera were being let into the house by the father, and (rather reluctantly) the mother.

"I put this to bed already, detectives. Now, you want me to revisit it? Why now?"

Vera looked nonplussed. "Why not now? Your other daughter, she wants to know the truth about what happened to her sister. We want to give her that."

Jeffries and Vera stood by the doorway of the living room, waiting to be invited to sit. The invitation hung suspended in the air, never coming. Jeffries could tell that the father simply had little in the way of hosting skills, but got the distinct impression that the mother would consider whatever she had to to boot them out of the door.

Vera finally made the first step—clearing his throat and motioning toward the couch in that way that said, _Come on. Take the hint, we're not leaving._ Vera sat, as Jeffries examined the pictures on the wall—there was a framed photo of Laina, A new years photo of the family taken in 2005, and a picture of the parents taken back in what looked like the eighties.

The father smiled at the picture Jeffries was looking at. "That was 1985. Two years before Renee was born… Kate had just gotten back from DC, and I was so happy to see her."

"Why DC?"

Kate looked uncomfortable. "Journalism job—one year thing. What do you need to know?"

Jeffries took the hint and sat next to Vera on the couch. "We've already begun looking into some things… her myspace, for instance. She mentions 'the game' in one of her blogs…?"

Leroy spoke up. "I ran a neighborhood football league a few years back. Renee wrote a newsletter for us… but it just stopped being fun, after—Someone else heads it now, over on eighth street."

"I'm sorry," Vera said simply. "Did you know of any boyfriends, anyone she was seeing?"

Kate spoke up for the first time. "She dated a boy from around here, Eli Brooks for a while. She broke up with him sometime in December '02. I remember it, because I liked him."

Jeffries started to stand, and Vera followed suit. "We'll be back if we find anything."

The door was shut behind them, and for a second, Jeffries was so stunned that he couldn't even speak. Something, something wasn't hitting him right. And he knew he wasn't alone when Vera did his trademark cynical arched eyebrow at him.

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It was eleven o'clock that Saturday morning, and Vera was sitting in the passenger side of one of the precinct SUV's, clutching a cup of large coffee in his hand that Jeffries had sprung for. At present they were sitting outside of eighth street park, where the dad said that a neighborhood league played flag football. According to a call that he'd gotten last night from Rush, they were looking for someone in particular, a Dante something. He'd called back later around eleven, realizing that he hadn't gotten the last name, but Rush hadn't answered. And then he'd called Valens, but no answer from him either.

"I hate these stakeouts," Vera said.

"This is hardly a stakeout. We're just waiting for people to start coming to the games."

"Are we even sure they're today?"

"It's a league for school kids. When else would it be?"

Vera sighed. There were times when the job started wearing down on him, and recently, he was having one of those times. After he and his wife separated a few months back, Vera had been throwing himself into work for no other reason than that there was nothing better to do. Granted, when he was married he never spent any time at home, but it was nice to have a home base.

And of course, this was one of those busy days. Lilly and Scotty were expected back by three that afternoon, and in the meantime, it was up to him and Jeffries to do the legwork. _Lucky bastards, _he thought. He loved Boston, and he hadn't been in years. He just never seemed to have time for it. He decided to occupy himself by thinking of all the places he would go if he went again, and wondered, vaguely, if Rush and Valens had hit any of those places.

"So, where do you think Lilly and Scotty were last night?"

Jeffries looked nonplussed. "You still bitter they didn't answer you?"

"Oh, come on. They didn't answer, because they were _doing something._"

"Mind out of the gutter, man. Lilly isn't exactly a 'painting the town bright red' type of person."

"But Scotty is—and we all got secrets—hey, there's somebody."

Walking directly in front of their car was a boy who looked in his late teens. He was struggling to carry first down marker poles, a scoreboard, and a few bags of what looked like uniforms. Vera motioned to Jeffries, and the two hopped out of the SUV.

"Hey," Vera called, "You need help with that?"

Jeffries held out his police badge, and the kid smiled a little, handing one of the bags over to Vera.

"Detectives Jeffries and Vera. We'll cut to the chase. We're here to reinvestigate the death of a Renee Hutchinson. You know her?"

A bewildered look covered the boys' face, then a small smile, as if recalling fond memories. "Terrell, and of course. Her dad used to run the league, I played on his team. We were friends. I had the most pathetic crush on that girl."

Jeffries laughed a little. "Did she reciprocate?"

"Of course not. She was three years older than me, so there was no shot."

"Did she ever mention any problems she was having? Boys? Home…"

Ryan shook his head. "We weren't that kind of friends. We didn't talk about stuff like that."

Vera cut in. "What did you talk about?"

"Football. She's still the only girl I ever remember being able to hold up her end of a football conversation. She used to call Westbrook the glass running back… I told her that him getting hurt that season was just a temporary thing, but she turned out to be right—like always."

Vera sighed. Nothing about this conversation was panning out as helpful. But he asked one last question as a desperate hope. "Do you ever remember her being really upset? Or stressed? Even if she didn't tell you why?"

"Well," Terrell responded, "Once."

_Terrell is throwing a football around, shirtless, with one of the assistant coaches, Darryl. He looks up and sees Renee, climbing into a gray Honda. Diverting his attention away, he throws a pass that comes off several yards short. _

"_Sorry." He says._

_Darryl laughs openly at him, tossing the ball back. "Give it up, Romeo."_

_Terrell takes the ball and nails Darryl in the chest with it. An offended look crosses Darryl's face, and Terrell responds, "Mind yours."_

_He looks up again, and sees Renee, climbing out of the car, tears streaming down her face. "Screw you Dante," he hears her yell, "You're just trying to mess me up."_

_Renee runs down the stairs and almost collides with him, attempting to give him a smile, but failing miserably. _

"_What's up, kid?" She whispers._

"_Renee… Renee what's--?"_

"_It's nothing, really. Nothing. Did—did you catch the game?"_

"_Game five, Eagles, of course."_

"_Glass running back strikes again. What did I tell you?" Renee laughs a little. "Go back and practice. My dad'll have your head if you aren't on your game."_

Terrell sighed. "Maybe I should've pressed more. But I thought—you know. I thought it wasn't a big deal."

Jeffries reached out and clasped Terrell's shoulder. "This is no time to play the blame game with yourself, okay? You can go now."

Terrell took back his equipment from Jeffries and Vera, and ran down the stairs. Vera looked at Jeffries.

"I heard one word louder than all the others. Dante."

_**Had to throw in Eagles references. Especially the westbrook thing—me and my dad call him that. lol. Please R&R.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Lotsa case. Please R&R. Thanks to the reviewers.**_

Lilly was deliciously tired the next day on the train. She remembered last night with a sort of haze, like a dream that she hadn't wanted to wake up from. Mostly, she remembered the numbing lights penetrating her, and the feel of Scotty's shoulders and denim jacket on the underside of her arm, as they'd danced. It was a nice dream, she decided. She was up for a repeat.

She realized with inner satisfaction that she had the window seat this time. Next to her, Scotty was almost passed out in his chair. She smiled a little at him. Lilly wanted him to know how much she enjoyed herself last night. After all, she wasn't pegged as a dancing type of girl, and hadn't been dancing, in fact, since she'd dated Kite. She'd thanked him in her way, though, and she was glad for that.

Still smiling, she laid her head full of messy hair against the window and waited for sleep to find her.

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They were back at the precinct by three thirty, and hadn't bothered to drop their things off at home. Both were too tired for the banter that they had enjoyed recently, and instead walked in comfortable silence over to their desks. Lilly was about to scurry off to find the boss, when Vera and Jeffries headed over to meet them.

"I would say welcome back," Vera started, "But I know you guys would much prefer not being in this hell hole."

Jeffries snickered. "So in Vera-speak that means 'welcome back'. How was it?"

Lilly glanced at Scotty, unsure exactly how much she really wanted to disclose. Scotty, however, in typical guy fashion replied, "You wanna tell them, or should I, Lil?"

Lilly played along, for the moment. "Tell them what? How you gave your phone number to a stripper?" Her words had the intended effect, distracting Vera and Jeffries.

"Ahh, Scotty, m'boy, you've made me proud," Vera said, through his laughter.

"She was a witness! Jayla!"

Lilly flipped her hair out of her eyes, "And a witness, too. Shame, shame, shame."

"_Lilly _here is just trying to avoid the subject. You wanna tell, or should I?"

Jeffries leaned against Scotty's desk and asked, "What, did you guys get married or something?"

Lilly's eyes got wide. "NO! Nothing like that!"

Vera nodded his head at Jeffries. "I think that's what it was."

"Me too. I just hope they can keep it out of the office."

"Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, you know."

"Think they can make it?"

"Stop that," Lilly said. "It really wasn't a big deal. Valens just _couldn't _stay in last night."

Vera stopped in his tracks. "I knew it! Who was right? C'mon, Will, who called it?"

"You did, Nick—Boss's coming."

Stillman was standing in the doorway of his office, waving them in. Lilly snagged Scotty deftly and started towing him toward the door with her. Right before they entered, he leaned over and whispered in her ear, "This ain't over, Rush."

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Stillman was pacing around his office when the four detectives arrived in, as attentive and dutiful as they could be on the outside. But Scotty was trying his damndest to hold in a laugh, Vera was smug over having been right over Will, and Lilly was trying to think of a way to kill Vera and Scotty without the boss noticing. The boss stood there expectantly, until Jeffries spoke up.

"We got another Dante mention. So I went online and found the guy."

That got Lilly's attention. "Where?"

"Living in Southwest. Joined the Army in '04, and now is studying at Temple. And I sent the myspace page to the computer guy. He traced Mystery Guy's computer to Jefferson High School."

"So, that eliminates a lot of people."

"It should. But Jefferson held open Computer slots in their library on Friday's in '03. A student would have used the lab, and an outsider would have used the library. Unfortunately, there's no way to differentiate the two."

Vera had to state the obvious. "So basically, we're screwed."

Stillman nodded. "In that respect. But there's still plenty to do. Vera, I want you and Valens to go and talk to Dante. See how much you can shake his memory about Renee and their relationship."

Both men nodded, and with a purposeful look from Stillman, left the room.

"Jeffries, Rush, I want you two to surf her records. I heard that this site she was on, My-whatever, keeps the old blogs, and her sister said she used them in the capacity of a diary. And try to put a dent in finding out who this 'mystery guy' is. She has to know him from somewhere."

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Scotty was an uncomfortable mix of exhausted and buzzed from too little sleep and too much caffeine. He generally liked field work, the interviews and the observation, but now, he longed to be back in the office where his partner was—pulling up files on the computer and resting in the comfortable chairs that spun.

Next to him, Vera was hyped on the adrenaline rush of having first won a bet with his partner. Jeffries generally called these things, and with his gentile observation, he was usually right. It figured that the reason Vera would win one of these things was his tawdry mind, but he'd called it, and now, he was curious.

"So, where did you and Rush go last night?"

Scotty let the question hang in the air, enjoying the whole power of it all. It kicked ass, he decided. _Note to self: take the squads resident hard-ass out more often._

"It really isn't as big a deal as she freaked out about it at the precinct. Just dancing."

Vera almost stopped in his tracks. "You went _dancing _with _Rush_? I don't know what you're smoking, man, but whatever it is, save some for me. Here we are."

Dante was living in a five-story apartment building at the very edge of Southwest Philly, on the fourth floor. There was no elevator, and, as far as Scotty could tell, no central air, despite the fact that it was boiling outside. Kids littered the front lawn, playing catch, or dodgeball, or whatever it was that little kids played nowadays. Nowadays. Now, that was something Vera, or Jeffries, or Stillman would say. Maybe Lilly wasn't the only one getting old, although he still saw none of that in her. Still, though, Scotty was easily about the youngest, though he had escaped the stigma of being the only twenty something two years ago.

He and Vera almost didn't survive the hike up the stairs in ninety-degree weather wearing ties. Lucky for them, though, Dante's door was the first on the right. Scotty started to knock on it, but Vera stopped him.

"Catch your breath, man. Two homicide detectives who can't climb a few sets of stairs ain't exactly intimidating."

"Point taken."

They knocked a few moments later, and a young man answered the door, shirtless. "Can I help you?"

"Philly PD. We're here to ask you a few questions."

Dante waved them into his cluttered apartment, motioning them to a tattered, but surprisingly comfortable couch by the TV.

"Can I ask what about?" Dante scurried about his living room, pulling on a shirt and waiting for an answer. "Sorry," he said, "Wasn't expecting company."

"We're here to ask about Renee Hutchinson. You remember her, right?"

"Of course. She was killed in '03."

Vera nodded, "But you know her better than that, though. Eighth street football league? We hear you two were pretty close."

"No."

"No?"

Dante shook his head and lounged on the recliner. "Where'd you hear that? One of those kids, I bet. They thought it was this huge thing."

Scotty gave Dante a sardonic look. "What was a huge thing?"

"You know, the whole assistant has a thing for head coach's hot teenage daughter who's too young for him thing. But it was really nothing."

"So, you didn't?" Vera wasn't buying what this kid was selling, and everyone knew it.

"Never said that."

Scotty stood up, in what Lil called his cutting-the-crap stance. Lilly had a lot of names for her co-workers idiosyncrasies, actually. "Then what _are _you saying?"

"I liked being around her. That's not a crime now, is it?"

"Depends which department of the police you're talkin' to."

"Hey, it wasn't like that, alright? We were friends. That's all."

Scotty shook his head at Vera, to give him the go-ahead. Enter the good-cop, bad-cop routine. Scotty usually took Bad cop with Lil, and vice-versa with Vera.

"Friends, huh? Friends? Did this girl have too many _friends_ for you to handle? Couldn't take it? Snapped her head off that day in the car? Cause this girl was sixteen, after all. Where's she get off makin' a fool of you, following her like some lovesick preteen?"

"I _said _it wasn't like that!"

Vera gave Scotty the nod, and said to Dante, "I think I need to use your bathroom."

Scotty spoke to him, slowly. "Then you need to tell me what it _was_ like. What happened in that car? You make plans with her to make it up, later, the first? Best of intentions, but it didn't turn out that way? I understand that."

"_No,_" he whispered, "I didn't, I really didn't."

Scotty reached inside a manila folder, and pulled out a print out of Renee's homepage. He pointed to the comment typed in a few days before.

"You said here that you were sorry you hurt her. Someone has said they saw her comin' out of your car, crying. Is that how you hurt her?"

"Yes."

"Whatever it is, you just gotta let it go. You can't carry it no more."

"I'm not—"

"You're carryin' it, man. Every day of your life. You comment her every day, you got her at the top of your top friends, above your girlfriend. You think that, maybe, if you devote yourself enough, it'll make it go away."

Dante's head went further down, and his eyes closed. Scotty sensed himself getting closer, and so he pushed just a bit more.

"But it don't go away. You just gotta face up to whatever it is, cause if you don't, it'll eat you alive."

"I didn't hurt her… physically. But I may as well've."

"Tell me."

"One time I crossed the line. Wound up bein' one of the worst things I ever did."

_It's Halloween, and unseasonably hot. Dante is sitting in his car for the air conditioning, and watching Renee. She is pacing up and down the sidewalk in jeans and a ¾ length shirt, the most overdressed of anyone outside. Tears run down her face occasionally, and when they do, she wipes them and the beads of sweat on her forehead away with her sleeves. She makes it to one corner, when an obviously older man leans out of his car and yells to her, "I can unbreak your heart, baby!" _

_She looks infuriated and scurries down the street toward Dante's car. He opens the door in invitation, but Renee just watches him. "Get in. You'll burn out there."_

_Renee climbs into the passenger seat, and, feeling the cool air, buries her face in her hands. Her body shakes with sobs, and Dante watches her, motionless, unsure of what to say or do._

"_I just wish he'd let go… why won't he let go?"_

"_Renee… whatever it is…it can't be all that bad." He doesn't ask her what the problem is, for fear of having to fix it. Instead, he listens to her cry as she lifts her face up from her lap._

"_Renee…" He places his hand on her knee. It's intended to be a comfort, but he likes the feel of it, and lets his hand linger. When she doesn't protest, he lets his hand drift higher and higher, no longer concentrating on her crying or the current problem. As his hand drifts across her waist, he kneads her flesh and starts to lean in, faster than he should and despite her talking._

_And then, there is a noise of outrage._

"_I can't believe you! I'm trying to get something out, and all you're concerned about is… Man, screw you. Screw you!"_

"_Renee, it's not like that—"_

"_Like what? You're, you're, nobody gives a damn about what the hell I want to say…"_

_She opens the door, and despite Dante's protests, slams it in his face. He hears her last furious yell through the window, "You're just trying to mess me up!"_

"If that's all that happened, I don't understand the guilt. You didn't push her. You didn't do anything to her that was… so bad."

"Next day, she died," Dante said, "And I'd do anything to take it back. They said she committed suicide. I know I didn't cause it, but… I was probably one of the last people who just wanted something out of her, and didn't –listen. I was one of the last people she went to for help, and I was too concerned with what I wanted… and I failed her."

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A few minutes later, and Vera and Scotty were trekking back down the stairs of the old apartment building.

"So?" Vera asked.

"So, he's got a lot of guilt. But I don't think he's mystery guy. And I really doubt he's our doer."

"Another four story walk wasted. These old love handles can't take anymore."

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While looking through Renee's old blogs, Lilly realized Scotty had been right about one thing.

She wasn't computer-literate.

Click, wrong button, go back, click, still wrong button, damn it—back—shit, just x-ed out, reload, click, right button. Finally.

"Oh, my god."

"What's that, Lil?"

Lines upon lines upon lines, fifty or so blog entries. But the biggest thing—no one was mentioned by name. This was going to suck.

She and Jeffries divided them up, twenty five and twenty five. Pre and Post birthday. It was Lilly's job to decipher the background of who her friends were, and Jeffries to look for clues as to who mystery guy was. Neither was a desirable task. Lilly had solved many of these cold cases before, and knew, of course that the first step to finding out why a person died was finding out who they were in the first place. But this… not fun.

An hour or so later, though, she was making some progress. Lilly had made a chart at the top of a notepad to note which blog entries pertained to whom. There was one column at the end, unknown, reserved for 'Mystery Guy'. But Lilly had no run-in's with him, and instead, had plenty about a senior kid, Ryan, that she had not yet heard about.

_He's something, he is. Tall and perfectly nice looking, wide eyes that look right into you. A sweet smell and a hypnotic voice when pressed close to you, expecting you to revel in his senior superiority glory. The type that plays with your hair and indulges you in worthwhile conversations of true contact. So yes, JJ, dinner was great._

_Dinner_? Lilly thought. She'd only been looking into this girls' case for two days, but it seemed like she was living the perfect life. But that was the problem. People with perfect lives didn't throw themselves off cliffs. They didn't get murdered by being thrown off cliffs, either. _Ahh, _she thought, clicking into something else. _This is something._

_So after the fiasco, it wasn't even worth staying. He didn't want to stay there with me, and frankly, I was too embarrassed after the spectacle he made at the restaurant. I apologized, sure, but after that… whatever. If you're reading this, consider yourself blocked. You gotta stop following me. You gotta let go._

Following her. Now that…that might be something.

Any consistencies?"

"Nothing that matters. So far, the coffee shop's the most consistant thing. Every blog! When did teenagers start drinking coffee?"

Lilly laughed. "What about mystery guy?"

"So far, Lil, I've got ten things that pertain to him. Starts on her birthday, talking about some guy staring, but in a different way than she's, well, used to. Seems to make her uncomfortable. Problem is, though, she didn't use names, and she's pretty vague. So we don't know if she knew him already or not."

"Really? I haven't got any. Just a mention of a kid that she knows who can't let go… Eli something."

"Brooks. Her mom mentioned him… her first love or something."

"From the sounds of this, she was his—he wasn't hers. Anyway, this kid busts up this date she has with some stuff, and she's pissed—blocks him so he can't talk to her. And right around that time, around her birthday, mystery guy pops up."

"So?"

"So I think mystery guy's Eli. He got a new account, with no stuff on it… no profile, anything, so she couldn't figure out who he was. Starts talkin' to her online—nothing big. She's still blabbing about how this guy who's staring makes her feel weird, it's probably him. How many stalkers does a teenage girl have?"

"Ideally, none. So, what? Last entry about mystery guy is in second person, all the rest are ones he responded to, written in third. So what, does she find out Eli's mystery guy? Agrees to meet him, and then what? He hurls her off a cliff?"

"Best theory we got so far."

**_Okay, so the end confuses even me a little, and I wrote it. But basically, this kid Eli was her first bf and took losing her hard, even going so far as following her. So she blocks him on myspace, (even though he still goes to her school) and around then,(her birthday) mystery guy pops up. They think she may have found out mystery guy was Eli, because her last blog was written in 2nd person. Again, any plot holes, please let me know._**


	6. Chapter 6

_**We're officially at the halfway point. I'm proud.**_

Lilly was back with Scotty later that night, searching through Renee's Sophomore yearbook from June 2003, for Ryan. Only going on the first name made it really difficult, and not knowing his major made it even rougher. The hours creeped later and later, and Lilly felt exhaustion mounting, so tired that she didn't trust herself to get any sleep that night. Who knew, she might crash on her couch and not wake up the next day. As Lilly took another deep sip of her third coffee of the night, Scotty stood up and sighed.

"Come on Rush, time to pack it in."

Lilly shook her head and flipped another page in the book, unwilling to relent. "He's here somewhere, Scotty. I'll go home when I find him."

"It's one am, Lil. And I know you. You'd live here if it were legal."

"I'm not going to sleep. May as well stay here."

"Could I tempt you with a drink before you become a complete monk?"

It took a minute for the joke to penetrate Lilly's haze of concentration, and when it did, she smiled a little and shook her head at him. "Not tonight."

Scotty sighed and started to sit back in his chair, which left Lilly oddly flattered. But she didn't want to keep him here all night. That was reserved for basket cases like her who had no lives, and she didn't want that for him.

"Scotty, go. I'm fine here."

He made anxious eyes toward the door. "You sure?"

Lilly looked up and smiled into his eyes, reassuring him as best she could. He returned the gesture, and both found themselves unable to look away. In the haze of the early morning, both pushing on two and three days without proper sleep, there was no teasing, no barbed wit, no deflection, none of that. Instead, there were just two people smiling at each other for what seemed to go on for hours, but in reality was no more than five or ten seconds.

Lilly cleared her throat embarrassedly. "We'll take a rain check on that drink, okay?"

"I'll hold you to it, Rush."

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Ryan had been hard to find in the yearbook, but surprisingly easy to find out in the real world. He was now a twenty-one year old student teacher, working at the Creative Arts high school both he and Renee had attended, under an older teacher who taught Italian and History. Lilly and Scotty had met up in front of the school, a grand-looking building that was marble on the outside, and looked more qualified to be a bank than anything else.

"He's working here now, Ryan Adams. Studying to become an Italian teacher under a Victoria Giovanni."

A few minutes later they were in a small classroom on the second floor, that vaguely reminded Lilly of her elementary school, down to the alphabet tacked on the wall. She didn't get the point of it, until she noticed some of the letters were missing. Just went to show how much she'd listened in her high school language class.

Ms. Giovanni was a tiny woman with short dark hair and brown eyes. She was seated behind her desk piled high with baskets of candy being sold for a dollar each. Lilly remembered school fundraisers. A dollar for what you could get for fifty cents—she never partook.

"Ryan's not in yet. I suppose I should be calling him Mr. Adams now, but it's such a culture shock for me. I used to teach him history, and now he's right back here, teaching with me, you know?"

"So you knew him?"

"He was one of my favorites. Diplomatically, a teacher's not supposed to have them, but… we're human. Can I ask why you're here?"

"We're reinvestigating the death of Renee Hutchinson. You remember her?"

"Of course, another one of the favorites I wasn't supposed to have. Smart girl, how fast she comprehended things amazed me. She used to come in here to buy candy after school with Ryan, and I'd never charge them. They were sweet together."

Lilly and Scotty both looked surprised at the lady, who simply laughed. "Teachers aren't as in the dark as you think. And that day in the library, well, it was pretty clear."

_Ms. Giovanni is subbing the library for fourth period lunch, and Renee is the only one inside. She shuffles the papers on her desk, and Ryan enters, quietly, signing his name on a roll sheet._

_Renee is standing in one of the rows of books in the library, and is casually leafing through a book labeled 'historical american culture'. She smoothes a page over with her hand, and crosses her legs, oblivious to the sound of rustling behind her, when lips appear next to her ear._

"_So, this is how you spend your lunch? Pretty pathetic."_

_Renee smiles toward the bookshelf and turns toward him. "Is this how you spend yours, following me? Cause that's equally pathetic."_

"_I wouldn't be the only one following you." _

_Renee looks at him annoyed, crosses her arms, and straightens her petite height to meet his. "Below the belt, Adams."_

"_I'm sorry. It just—wasn't cool to have our date interrupted like that."_

_Renee puts her hands on her hips and raises and eyebrow. "Date?"_

"_Outing."_

_She laughs and tilts her head to the side, appraising him. "Are you telling people you went on a date with me?"_

"_It was hardly a date."_

_She looks up at him through her lashes. "Care to explain?"_

"_Call me old fashioned, but I always thought dates ended with, I don't know, kisses?"_

"_You're pushing it, Adams."_

_She turns back around and pretends to pursue her book, but stops short when hands appear on her hips. "Whatcha readin'?"_

"_Stuff. You know, back in, say, the 1910's, a kiss would be unacceptable. They'd say we were sharing an intimate moment right now."_

"_And how's that?"_

_She turns around, and lowers her voice, drawing him closer to hear it. "My hair's down. In some cultures, that was a sign of intimacy… reserved only for who a woman—really cared about."_

_Ryan places his hand in her hair, grins at her, and leans toward her lips._

"_Can't have it all, Adams."_

"_I don't want it all."_

_He leans closer, and Renee allows it to happen. Their lips touch for a second, and when they break away, Renee smiles._

"_I give, Ryan."_

_Behind them, there Ms. Giovanni clears her throat. Renee looks embarrassed and struggles to untangle herself, failing miserably._

"_This isn't a make out room, Signore Adams, Signorina Hutchinson. Miss Bell would not approve."_

_Renee stutters, trying to get over her embarrassment. "Mi dispiace, Signora Giovanni. I, um… should go eat before the period's up."  
_

"_I'll come with you."_

_The two run out of the room, leaving Ms. Giovanni behind, a smile touching her lips._

"Poor things, walked on eggshells around me for the next two days. But I thought they were adorable."

"Do you remember what day this was?"

"Of course. Tuesday the sixteenth. When someone's gone, it's strange, but you remember the oddest things."

Lilly's mind was scrambling to put together some sort of timeline. Renee and Ryan's first date had been sometime before the twelfth, probably the weekend before. Her birthday was on Friday, and by all accounts, Eli was there and Renee had been happy-go-lucky. Games were all day Saturday, church and football monopolized her Sundays. Eli had been blocked on Monday morning, so the disaster date had probably been on Saturday night. But by Tuesday, Ryan was over it, no love lost.

Finally, Ryan appeared behind them, looking very different from the boy Lilly had seen in the yearbook and on his myspace. Ryan had become a more seasoned charmer—taller, good-looking, well-dressed.

"May I ask who you two are?"

Lilly took out her badge. "Detectives Rush, Valens."

Ryan reached out for a lingering handshake with Lilly, staring into her eyes a bit longer than was necessary or strictly polite. "I wouldn't have made you for a detective, Miss Rush."

"Mistake gets made a lot."

"You don't look like one." Directly in her eyes again.

Lilly thought her instincts had to be mistaken, because the next option was that this kid was hitting on her, but that was insane. He was practically a teenager.

"At all." His eyebrows raised just a bit.

"And Rush, that's an interesting last name. Is there a first name to go with it?"

Lilly frowned, but decided it would do no harm. "Uh, Lilly."

"Lilly Rush. Very pretty." But the way he was looking at her, she knew he was referring to her and not the name.

Definitely scamming. _Kid, I'm old enough to be your mother._ Well, biologically, she was. It wasn't like she was in the position to have kids at fifteen anyway. Hell, she wasn't in the position to have kids now. Still, it was discerning.

Scotty, tired of being ignored, fought back a laugh. "We're here to investigate the death of Renee Hutchinson. You remember her."

Ryan's face was instantly serious. "Renee, of course. It was awful, what happened."

"We hear the two of you were dating?"

Ryan grinned, eyes glazed over, remembering. "Only two dates."

Lilly spoke up. "Remember anything about her?"

"Unforgettable lightness. You can tell that about people, detective." He said, locking eyes with her.

"We also hear that there was something of a fiasco on your second date. Involved a kid named Eli?"

Ryan sighed, and shook his head a bit. "We all overreacted. It wasn't anything all that important. We were cool, and he thought I was taking his girl."

"Were you?"

"Not my style. They were already broken up, but it might have been a bit… shabby of me."

Scotty took a step forward. "Can you tell us Eli's state of mind involving her?"

Ryan shrugged. "She was that girl that he couldn't get over. But it wasn't like you're thinking. He didn't do that."

Lilly flicked her hair out of her eyes. "Is there a reason you're so sure?"

"He was so broken after she died. He couldn't have done that."

Lilly leaned against the whiteboard, unnerved. From everything she was hearing the two of them hated each other, but now, Ryan and Eli had clearly gotten close. She wondered if Renee's dying had done that. "Just tell us about the last date. We'll decide if it's relevant or not."

"It was supposed to be perfect," He said, "The last one, and it was completely fucked up."

_Renee and Ryan are sitting in a booth at a chili's, laughing. They are across the table from each other, both slightly over-dressed for the casual place, sitting up straight, as if trying to impress each other._

"_I obviously never did that again," Ryan laughs._

"_You better not've! I can't date someone who does stupid shit like that!"_

"_So this is a date, Renee?" He imitates her signature look, looking at her through his lashes._

"_An outing. That you're paying for." She turns away from him and winks at him cheekily._

_A waitress comes over and brings dessert, a molten chocolate with vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate syrup at the top, and warm chocolate cake at the bottom. Ryan reaches into his pocket and wedges a candle in the cake and lights it with a lighter, and, laughing, Renee leans toward it._

"_Make a wish. But you can't wish for a million more wishes, that's against the rules."_

"_I make my own."_

_She leans closer to it, slowly, but sees someone outside of the door, and her dreamy look leaves. She blows out the candle in a quick puff, and says to Ryan, "I gotta go do something."_

_Renee runs off from the table toward the door, and Ryan follows her halfway, seeing Eli._

_Renee stops and pushes the glass door open. "What the hell are you doing?"_

_Eli glowers at her. "In the neighborhood. Thought I'd check up on my ex girlfriend and ex friend, and look! They're together."_

"_You've been drinking."_

"_The capacity of 'mother' in my life has been filled, thanks."_

_Renee turns in one complete circle in her exasperation. "So this is what you do now? Get drunk and follow people? God, Eli."_

"_I want to know why you left me for him."_

"_I didn't! In case you hadn't noticed, we've been broken up for ten months! Did you not get the memo? You know, around Christmas, 2002?"_

"_I…"_

"_You gotta stop this. I mean it! Go home now."_

_Eli doesn't move, and Renee nudges him lightly with her hand. He grabs her wrist, hard, and pushes her back into the place before stumbling down the front steps. Renee's wrist has a blue bruise where Eli grabbed her. She stands at the front door and shakes her head, dotting at her eyes so that the tears don't come._

"That was our last date. She left not too long after that."

"Why was it the last one? This was the thirteenth of October."

"I know, but she was so busy after that. Weekends were booked up, meeting her friends in that coffee shop, her dad's football games, and by the twentieth, she was completely distracted. We were supposed to meet on the third, but, obviously…" He sighed.

Scotty cut in. "That's all for now, Mr. Adams. We'll come back if we think of anything else. Lil?" He jerked his head toward Ryan, and Lilly rolled her eyes at him, and handed Ryan her card.

"Is this your phone number, detective?" He raised his eyebrows suggestively, and Lilly pretended not to notice.

"Uh, yeah. It's to call if you think of anything pertaining to the case."

"I will, and it was nice meeting the two of you." His eyes locked on Lil's when he said that, and finally, the two of them left.

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"So, if that kid was any more obvious, he'd have to be dancing around nude with 'I'm hot for you' written on his back." Scotty laughed.

"Oh, shut it."

Scotty was just gearing up. "Detective? You can't be a detective. Unforgettable lightness, you know that in people, like you, detective… oh, Lilly? What a beautiful name for a beautiful woman."

"He didn't say that."

"He was thinking it. Oh, Lilly, is this your phone number? Can I call you and we can have hot cradle-robbing sex?"

Lilly jumped in the air and bumped him hard with her entire weight against one of the red metal lockers, but lost her balance and fell against him. "Ow! Sexual abuse! Not that I mind it, but can you give me a little warning before you jump my bones?"

"Fu…. Never mind."

"No, what?"

"I was about to say, 'fuck you, Valens'. But that probably wouldn't be the best choice of word."

"It's fine by me."

Lilly just rolled her eyes.

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After the interview with Ryan, Lilly and Scotty sat by their desks with Jeffries and Vera, going over what he had said.

"So, besides the fact that the guy was hot for Lilly," Vera said, "Did we get anything else?"

Lilly brandished he fist threateningly at Vera and responded, "One thing. We got an elaboration on the date, and it looks like Eli was drunk and got a little rough with her. Grabbed her wrist so hard it left a mark."

"I think it's time for us to meet Eli."

_**And that's it. Thanks to Jambled, Longislanditalian2, seeingstars27 and artificially sweet for all the support. I really appreciate it.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**So, guess who's back? Real life intruded on this fic, but I promised myself I'd finish. So R&R, and I promise it won't take me another two months to update.**_

The past three years had obviously not done Eli very well, Lilly decided. Dante had grown into quite the intellectual college student, though guilt-ridden, and Ryan into a handsome student teacher, even though he yearned for what might have been. Both of them had been individually scarred by Renee's death, both of them carried pieces of her with him, but neither had been robbed of their youth. Eli, however, had aged. He had thirty years of burden placed on his nineteen year old shoulders; eyes sunken, skin pale. He was good looking, but far too grave for a kid not even yet twenty. His look was a haunted one that Lilly frequently recognized in herself, but Lilly couldn't tell whether the haunting was from losing his first love, or from guilt.

Lilly stuck with Scotty outside the box, and watched Vera and Jeffries enter, fervently chewing a pen. She could usually tell on sight whether or not there was a shot that the suspect was the doer. Eli was a puzzle. Presently, he was sitting at the metal table with his cheek pressed against steel, scuffing his shoes.

Vera shoved the table a bit, jolting Eli up from his sitting position.

"Better."

Eli should have looked resentful, but instead, he kneaded his hands and looked Vera square in the eye. "Renee was amazing. I never hurt her."

Vera looked surprised. "I didn't mention Renee, did you, Jeffries?"

"Sure didn't. But you know about it?"

"I don't know anything, detective."

"And yet you knew what we'd ask."

"Oh, come on. Every one knows that you're investigating the suicide… saying it wasn't a suicide."

It was bait, and Jeffries took it. "And you know she didn't?"

"I don't know anything, detective."

Vera circled the room, appraising Eli through the severe narrowing of his eyebrows. "But you know you were stalking her."

Eli's laugh was both spontaneous and sinister. "You police are such extremists. I was a love-struck kid. Nothing else."

"So you loved her, Eli? That why you set up a blank profile to follow her online? That why you heaved her into that ditch? What's love gotta do with that?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I might've been… overzealous with Renee, but that? I loved her. There's no way, absolutely no way."

Outside the box, the scent of Scotty's cologne permeated Lilly's reverie, a welcome invasion of her space. He whispered, "You get the vibe he's hiding something?"

She mumbled through her throat, "Kid's wasting away. Guilt or grief?"

"Who knows? He's a teenager. He'd be angsting it out anyway. Call it biology."

"I guess you'd remember that better than I would, huh?"

"Damn right, old head."

Lilly lightly bumped his left shoulder with her right, inconspicuously, because the boss was watching. She shoved the pen into her mouth again, and steeled her eyes like she always did when she was trying to sift through information and extract what mattered.

Jeffries spoke in his soft voice, adding an approachable aspect to Vera's intimidation. "No one's trying to frame you, or hurt you, or anything like that. But if you know something—if you _did_ something, it would go better for you just to say it."

"I don't know anything, detective."

Vera raised his eyebrow sardonically. "I hope you had a bigger vocabulary when Renee was alive. Was that what it was? She dumped you because you couldn't handle her? Was she bored with you? We hear that you caught her on a date, and she never wanted to see you again. That jive?"

Eli stood up defiantly, and snatched his hands out of his pockets. "I don't know who you've been talking to, but you're misinformed."

"So you did talk to her. She agree to meet you? Say, Fairmount Park?"

Eli's face was the face of a kid who had said too much, and spilled the beans on some surprise. Lilly frowned, and whispered to Scotty, "He's hiding something. But it's not _that_."

"Speak for yourself."

Back inside the box, Eli was trapped. "I met her. At the coffee shop."

Jeffries laughed, trying to establish some sort of camaraderie with the guy. "When did kids start drinking coffee? I missed that whole thing."

"Renee actually hated coffee. But she started going there in September… it was the strangest thing. Guess she liked to feel grown up."

"And when was this—coffee date?'

Eli sighed. "Day before she died."

"And how did that happen? You follow her there?"

"No. She asked me to come."

Scotty leaned over to Lilly again. "Now you _know _that's not true. I don't buy it."

Lilly flicked her blue eyes back inside the room, and listened intently. Scotty knew better than to cross her then, as she chewed the pen harder. Lilly had a way of docking herself inside people's heads and having a look around, and she was clearly doing that now.

Jeffries voice was lightly skeptical. "She _asked _you."

Eli nodded in earnest. "The girl was destroyed."

_Renee is sitting at a corner table, gulping down a cup of coffee. She is talking to employee 'James' when Eli comes in, and grasping his hand. Eli starts to head out the door, and Renee waves him over. As Eli sits at the table, James runs off, giving Renee eyes of reluctance._

"_You invite me here to I could see you on a date? Low blow, Renee, even for you."_

"_Even for me? What's THAT supposed to mean?"_

"_You're a tease. You broke up with me for no reason, and now, you're here to rub it in my face because you can."_

_Instead of responding back as Eli would expect her to, Renee looks down into the depths of her coffee cup. "Can we not today? Please?"_

_Eli leans across the table and clasps her eyes with his own. "You're scaring me, Renee. What's going on?"_

"_James isn't—we arent't—"_

"_It doesn't matter. What's up with you? This is not you. Why'd you call me here?"_

"_Because you… I've known you all my life. I didn't know who else to call."_

"_Ryan? Dante?"_

"_I'm not a slut, you know. So you can stop that."_

"_I don't think that about you. No matter who you sleep with… I never could."_

"_I'm not sleeping with anyone. Not that it's your business."_

_Eli's voice is instantly quiet, gentle, and intimate. "Why'd you call me here?"_

"_I don't want to bother you with it. Just… family stuff."_

"_You fighting with your parents?"_

"_I wish. That would be easier."_

"_So, what is it?"_

_Renee's eyes scatter around the coffee shop, weaving through the people. Her eyes fall on James, who is sitting at the counter with his arms crossed. "You don't want to know. Really. I just… needed company."_

"_That's what I'm here for."_

Eli's eyes were full, almost begging to be believed. Vera had his arms defiantly crossed, and Jeffries was looking at the table. Scotty's eyes were narrowed, but the wheels in Lilly's head were turning. She was recalling one consistency in the case, a consistency that was ridiculous in its insignificance. She remembered one sentence from Renee's blog.

_You're always there, and I watch you over my cup of coffee…_

Lilly whispered fervently to herself, "That's how she knows him." She turned to Scotty, briskly, head still spinning. "Hold the boss down. I just thought of something."

"What?"

"I don't even know myself. Just cover for me, okay?"

Scotty's furrowed eyebrows deepened. He hated it when Lilly went out to chase leads on her own. It made perfect sense that she would, considering how wildly incoherent her theories were when she first thought of them, but he still didn't like it. He had not yet forgotten when Lilly had last put on her Detective Rush costume to go chase a lead—in the woods. The turnout hadn't been too bad, but who knew if Lil would be the one to pull the trigger the next time? Of course, he was not allowed to be protective, but he was allowed to be worried, even if there was no sign of danger on this case. The job hadn't yet taken away his ability to care about people. All in all, he could have thought of a million things to say to stop her, but the time the protests reached his lips, she was already gone.

_**Next chapter we have the big revelation. Any ideas? **_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Here we go. The big one. Hope it doesn't disappoint.**_

When asked how it was to work with Lilly, Scotty had once said that she had a mind like a mousetrap. When she got hold of an idea, she would never let go of it until it made complete sense to her. That was how it was now. There was some correlation, some case breaker that existed only in fragments now in her mind. She needed to go out and string the pieces into a tangible, accessable theory. Easier said than done.

She'd defied all speed limits to get to the coffee shop on the corner of some Center City back street. Lilly knew that she'd pass at least three more to get to Renee's school, and so she had to wonder, why this one?

The guy behind the counter was reluctant to give her the 03 employee list, mumbling something about rules and protocol. It was only when Lilly said that she was investigating a murder case that the man pricked up. The binder was in her hand in fifteen seconds flat, and he leaned in way too close and way too interested to hear all the gory details.

Lilly, in the meantime, was murmuring indiscriminate case details to herself. "Hated coffee, late September, James, family issues, mystery guy, myspace, Jefferson high." What did they have in common? And then, the people she had met so far, "Jayla moves away, Ryan boy toy, Dante feels guilty, reluctant mother Kate, insistent sister Laina." _Come on. Think._

A name on the page jumped out at her. _James Anderson, 17._

She vividly remembered Eli's interrogation, and him mentioning who he thought was a date, James, by name. Another love interest? But she was emotionally connected to mystery guy, in an almost soul mate kind of way. Why then would she continue to date Ryan and Dante? Jeffries voice sounded in her ear. "When did kids start drinking coffee?" But Renee had hated it. Then why the coffee shop? James. It was the only thing that made sense. But who the hell was James, anyway?

A further entreaty into James's file revealed a copy of his student ID, birth date November 6th, 1985. Math in Lilly's head showed that he had been a senior when Renee died. The school was printed on the top right corner of the ID, and Lilly's eyes nearly doubled in size.

_Jefferson High._

Not concerning herself with social grace, she shoved the binder back into the cashiers hands with a quick nod, and flipped open her cell phone to dial Scotty.

"Going to the Records building."

"Wait for me, I'll get my coat and meet you."

"Stay. I'll be back."

Scotty could tell she was still in what he called "a space". It was when she completely forgot everything around her but the case. Usually, after the spaces ended, she would come back to the rest of the world with a brilliant theory, but during them, Scotty was nothing but dead weight when around her.

So, he simply replied, "Be quick. The boss wants you to have a go at the guy."

He could hear her groan into the phone. "Tell him I'm checking something out. It'll be worth it. I think I found mystery guy."

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Back at the precinct, Scotty was getting bored of watching Eli's interrogation. He hadn't gone in yet, and now doubted he would, considering that he had nothing to say. And so he was left to wonder what epiphany Lilly was having now, and when she would let him in on it.

There wasn't much to do to make himself useful, so Scotty grabbed his jacket off of the back of his chair, and headed down to the ME's office to push to get the residue on Renee's cheek tested. It was a task that all of them hated, but Scotty decided it was time to do what he did best—charm a woman to get what he wanted. In this case, he wanted the results back, and fast. It sounded tawdry, but being charming was what he was good at. Call it a leftover effect of being a mama's boy.

Rush was going to come back with some huge case breaker. The least Valens could do was find something to bring to the table.

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Lilly had been wading through papers for thirty minutes before she found the gold—the adoption papers.

"Born November 6th '85, adopted ten days later. No wasted time."

Beneath that, was James's original birth certificate. Mother maiden name… she did a double take. Father not listed.

And Lilly knew that she had finally found what had been haunting Renee during her final three weeks of life.

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On her way back from the records building, Lilly just about collided with Stillman. He gave her a 'where the hell have you been?' look, and she rushed to explain—incoherently.

"Well mystery guy, you see—he worked in this coffee shop, and, her brother…"

Stillman cut her off, deciding that this was something that the detectives should hear all at once. Lilly lead the way into the precinct, blonde hair coming completely undone from having been running around all afternoon with no mind for cosmetics. She reached back, pulled the clip from the coil, and clasped it to her button down shirt.

Scotty, recently back from the medical examiners office, glanced up, and then stood, upon seeing Lilly being escorted in by Stillman. Vera and Jeffries soon followed from inside the box. Jeffries handed Eli his card, and sent him on his way.

"So, Lil, you gonna tell us where you've been all afternoon?"

Lilly sat down and lounged in Scotty's rolling chair. She always playfully whined about how it wasn't fair that his chair was better that hers, and he always let her sit in it. It was one of their things, and she liked it.

"So, I was listening to the interrogation."

Stillman nodded, and asserted quietly, "I didn't get that he did it."

Lilly raised her eyebrows to say that she agreed. "But what jumped out at me was something he said about the coffee shop… something Will said, actually, about when did kids start drinking coffee--"

Scotty finished her sentence, as he was accustomed to doing. "But he said she hated it. What's the point, Lil?"

"Well, why would she go if she hated it? She wanted to meet someone there. James."

"The kid she _wasn't _on a date with," Vera responded sardonically.

"She wasn't. I looked him up on the coffee shop, and he was a senior in '03… went to Jefferson high."

Jeffries was starting to connect. "Where Mystery Guy's profile originated."

"Right. So I ran off to the records building, because his file was missing a birth certificate… and I thought that was weird."

"He could have been working under the table."

"And he probably was. But, I don't know, something told me to check it out. So I went into his records, and I found adoption papers. He was adopted in November '85 from DC."

"I'm still waiting for a point, Lil," Stillman said.

Scotty looked voraciously at Lilly, waiting for the big bang sure to some next. She reached into a manila folder and pulled out a copy of the birth certificate. Scotty grabbed it from her hands and read it out loud.

"Born November 6th, 1985. Mother…." Scotty's mouth began gaping open and closed like a fish. "Mother's maiden name, Kate Rochelle Johnson. Renee's mother."

Jeffries distantly remembered meeting Kate and Leroy. "Kate went away for a journalism job in '85. Took up being a minister in '87."

Lilly nodded. "They got married in '81. She went away for a year, and came back having been pregnant and having the baby adopted. Never said anything about it."

Scotty nodded, understanding. "So Mystery guy wasn't a love interest… he was her half-brother."

_**Reviews make me work faster, hint. **_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Authors note: Any of you ever get into cold war fights with people, and you don't know how and when they started? I always do, so I guess that means I'm the problem. But it seemed to me that Rush is the type of person that would do that a lot. So, first half, LS tension, next half, case interviews. **_

It was pushing ten o'clock that night when a search on Scotty's computer revealed where James was living. He was a business major at Penn State, about three hours outside of Philadelphia. Scotty printed up the directions, and nonchalantly pushed them across the table to Lilly, still dissecting her pen with her teeth. He told her frequently she'd get ink poison like that, and she always responded that it wouldn't be a bad way to go.

She tore the pen down from her lips, and began to map out a timeline on one of the extra napkins from her lunch. "So she starts going to the shop in September, but she doesn't start getting… off until after her birthday, according to Eli."

"She didn't have to know at first. You feel those things, Lil."

Lilly, who hadn't felt any level of kinship with her sister in ten years, was silent. Scotty knew batter than to press the point. He'd had fun with Christina, and didn't regret it, but he knew that putting himself between two warring sisters had been a severe judgment lapse. More alike than they cared to admit, they were both sharp and hot-tempered, and if anything, he was luck he hadn't been killed in the crossfire's.

Lilly was reaching across Scotty's desk for a pizza menu, when he snatched it from her hands. "What's the use staying? We can't drive up there until tomorrow, anyway."

She wrestled it back, and Scotty, surprised by her vehemence, released it. "What's the use going?"

"C'mon. Rain check on the drink, remember?"

She ran a hand through her mussed hair before responding, "Let it go. I'm not in the mood tonight."

And like that, the tone shifted, and it annoyed him. It wasn't like he was asking that much of her, or that he was trying to get into her pants, or that he was trying to push her to be something besides his friend. He just thought that it would be nice to have some camaraderie with his partner for once, which transcended beyond solving cases. They both enjoyed each other's company, and they both thought that they were the only ones who did. Of course, the inevitable result was that they were both made to feel that they were the weak link in the partnership. And Scotty had thought he had left insecurity behind in his teenage years. _Screw it_, he thought. He knew he was being childish, but he grabbed his briefcase and left, leaving Lilly unaware that something in Scotty's head had been inexorably decided.

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Jeffries was in an observant type of mood the next morning. He stepped out of his house eight minutes before he usually did, and noted that the same kid was riding the same trace pattern around his block as he had been last week. Stillman was wearing the hundred-dollar tie that he and Vera had chipped in for last Christmas. Janie the secretary was making eyes at a young male visitor who had come in to see the Captain. And Rush and Valens were standing stiffly at the coffee pot, both inherently aware of not invading each others personal space. Valens finished pouring his cup, and leaned over to pour some in Rush's. She reached for the handle, and he wouldn't let it go. Valens hissed impatiently at her that he had it, and she mouthed with venom, "I'm _fine._" He let go, and the coffee sloshed from the pot. He walked away rolling his eyes, and Lilly muttered to herself as she cleaned the mess.

Yes, Jeffries was in an observant mood that morning.

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Lilly could not have told why she was in a cold war with her partner, and it shouldn't have bothered her anyway. Scotty's interest could, and often did, wane at absolutely anything.

Presently, the four detectives were waiting for the days assignments. Lilly's pressed white shirt had splatters of coffee on the sleeves, and she did not like the knowing smirk Valens was flashing at her. She shoved the sleeves to her elbows, annoyed, and angled herself at the Captain, refusing to look anywhere else.

Stillman clearly wanted to be left to his visitor, and doled out the assignments with unusual brevity.

"Rush, Jeffries, James. Vera, Valens, parents."

And like that, they were dismissed. Lilly, now on her fourth night without sleep, was horrifically unaware of her surroundings, and bumped square into her partners' chest. Instead of making one of his cocky-guy jokes like he normally would have, like she had come to even enjoy, he held her shoulders stiffly away from him. "Sort it out, Rush," was his brisk response, before bolting to the door with Vera at his side. And she wondered what was with the change, and where the hell she had been when it happened.

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Lilly had not been lying when she had said she enjoyed long rides. And next to her, driving, was Jeffries. Lilly had known she would like Will from the beginning. There was something paternal in the way he spoke, something gentlemanly in the way he moved. He was the type who would open doors for you, listen when you wanted to talk, and understand when you didn't. Lilly guessed these qualities had made him very popular with women in his day, but she had never asked him about it. Presently, he was sitting comfortably with his hands at ten and two.

"I can feel the eyes, Lil."

She should have been embarrassed, and would have been if it was Scotty, or even Vera. Instead she responded carelessly, "Just thinking how popular you must've been with women in your day."

If he thought it was a strange change in thought, he didn't say so. "I was… acceptable. So what about you, you driving the men crazy, Lil?"

"Hardly. I may as well be wearing a sign that says 'cop.'"

Jeffries arched his eyebrows, ever so slightly. "So, there's no one?"

"No one. I'm married to the job, you and Vera, Stillman…." Her voice trailed off, uncomfortably.

"And Scotty." Jeffries supplied, airily.

"And Valens."

Will was trying, really trying, not to laugh. "What's with you and Scotty, anyway?"

Lilly shot him a look. She hadn't known that the tension between the two of them had been so palpable. But, again, she was talking to Will. He saw everything, even if he pretended that he didn't.

"The coffee pot. Dancing in Boston. Him staying late at the precinct with you. It's just this side of obvious, Lil."

Lilly replied firmly, "I'm not sleeping with Valens."

"Calling him Valens. _Something _happened. Even if not that."

"I don't—I don't even-" Lilly stopped herself. This was in no way professional. "Just drop it, okay?"

And true to form, he did. That was Jeffries for you. He listened when you wanted to talk, and understood when you didn't.

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Just then, ending a similar discussion about Lilly with Vera, Scotty hit the steps of the Hutchinson house, and cooled out. He was at work now. It was his job to figure out who had killed Renee. Figuring out why Lilly was a hard-ass could wait until after the case was over. God knew the problem would still be there.

Leroy answered the door, and looked so hopeful that Scotty actually felt bad. Not only did they not know who had killed Renee, but they had dug up his wife's ancient, family secret. All in all, it kind of blew to be him right now.

"Detectives! Did you find anything? Do you know who…? Oh, I'm sorry. Come in."

"We have a few leads we're checking out," Scotty replied, with the experienced vagueness of a Homicide cop. "I'm Detective Valens."

"Uh, Leroy. What is it, then?"

Vera nodded curtly, getting straight to the point. "I was hoping I might speak to you, and Detective Valens might speak to your wife?"

Leroy was instantly skeptical. "Kate hasn't been herself the last few weeks. You can imagine… this has drawn some fresh blood for her. Couldn't you talk to us together?"

"It'll help us. Bring us closer to finding her killer."

Leroy's face was clearly still uncomfortable, but he jerked his head toward the hallway. "Second door on your right."

After Scotty left, Vera settled himself on the tattered green recliner next to the window; Leroy instantly perked up. "That was Renee's chair. She and I would lay back and watch Eagles games on the big screen."

Vera looked up; there was no big screen in sight.

"I sold it that January, after the playoff game against the Packers. Remember, 4th and 26? She would have loved it. She always said that Freddie Mitchell would have to earn his keep some day."

Vera got an overwhelming feeling of sorrow for the man next to him. He remembered that game clearly—he had been watching it with Jeffries, Valens, and a few of his buddies. Even Rush had made an appearance for one quarter, bearing pizza, before running off to do something. And the last play of regulation had been a come-from-behind, backed up 26 yards, impossible Donavan McNabb working his magic kind of play. It was one of the highlights of Vera's sports-watching life. And the guy next to him couldn't even enjoy it, because all he could think about was how much his daughter would have loved it.

"I sold the TV the next day; I was tired of looking at it. Kate's after me to get rid of the chair, but…"

"But you need it there."

Leroy nodded.

"Does your wife not like memorabilia around the house? The TV, the couch, no pictures…"

"She said it was eating her up. I came home one day, and all the pictures of her were gone. Like she never even existed. I thought she'd get over it, but she didn't."

Vera filed that bit of information in his brain, for later. "Do you remember her being, well, off at the end? About anything?"

"Something that would make her decide to kill herself, no. But the day before she died…"

_Leroy comes into Renee's room. She's looking at a four-paneled WOW skating house picture, eyes clearly swollen. Looking up, she sees her dad, and motions across the room._

"_Beanbag's free."_

_He sits, and watches her. "This Saturday, play-off game one. Can I count on you to be there?"_

_She plops back onto her bed, and looks up into her ceiling. "I don't know, dad."_

_He feigns injury. "You can't stray on us now, can you?"_

"_Why not? Everyone strays on everyone anyway."_

_Leroy gets up, wincing at the pain in his knees, and walks the five steps to Renee's bedside._

"_What happened, honey?"_

_She turns instantly away, and studies her scuffed sneakers. "Nothing, nothing…"_

_Leroy doesn't let go. "Is it Dante?"_

_Renee tightly shakes her head no._

"_I heard from Terrell, you know. The car today."_

'_Terrell talks too much."_

"_Dante, you know, he likes you. You're not…"_

"_Nothing dad. Less that nothing. An atom of nothing."_

_Leroy laughs. "Point taken. But you could tell me, you know, I wouldn't be mad."_

_Renee rolls her eyes, and clasps her dads shoulder in good-natured disbelief. "You would. But don't worry about it, we're friends. If that."_

"_You've been so off recently, honey. You're kind of scaring me."_

"_It's teenage writer chick angst, dad. The whole, 'I am a sensitive artist, no one gets me because I'm so deep, life is a black abyss' thing. Spreads like the flu, and I forgot to get inoculated."_

_Leroy laughs._

"_Stop worrying. And don't fire your assistant coach, nothing happened."_

_Leroy is momentarily pacified, and leans over to kiss his daughters forehead. "And don't you worry about the game. It's not required. You'll be there in spirit."_

_Renee tugs at her lip, a nervous habit, as Leroy heads for the door. She flips back her messy hair and replies, "No, I'll be there for real."_

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Scotty didn't know why he was always the one made to talk to the woman. He had nothing against that concept generally, but on cases, he thought it would be nice to occasionally be able to indulge in manly talk, instead of always being assigned the mothers, the sisters, the daughters, the wives. It was just a thought.

If Kate thought it was weird to have a strange Hispanic man she didn't know in her den, she didn't let on about it. Hell, with the stuff they'd dug up on her, maybe she was used to it.

"I'm Detective Valens." Scotty thought he must spend half his life saying that. "I assume you know why I'm here?"

"Renee."

Scotty waited for her to elaborate, and when she didn't, he took a breath and tried to find his words. How did one phrase this?

"I'm here to ask you a few personal questions. Is that okay?"

Kate motions to the couch, and responds, "Pry away."

"About James?"

Kate goes still for a moment, and then begins wringing a handkerchief in her fingers. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

Good god, the woman was a bad liar. "James, you know, your son?"

"I don't have a son."

_Lady, give it up. _"I'm afraid he, his birth certificate, his birth mother, and your daughters' myspace all say different."

Kate sighed, and sat down, as far from Valens as was possible in the room.

"What does he have to do with anything?"

_And we strike gold. Third times a charm._ "We believe Renee found him. At Last Drop, he was working there, and she went every day the month before she died."

"She didn't know about it. How could she?"

"He probably knew. And teenagers aren't known for vocal restraint."

"It was a closed adoption."

"I think you'll find closed adoptions are not all that closed. Especially when the kid moves into the same city as you."

"She didn't know."

"You and I both know that she did. And did you know they were meeting up? He wanted to meet her in Fairmount Park, the day she died."

"I didn't know."

"Right, of course. She didn't know, you didn't know."

"I think it's time for you to leave, Detective."

Scotty knew when he had hit a brick wall, and got up to walk out the Den door. "And you have a good day, Ms. Hutchinson. Expect me back."

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"She give you anything?"

"Ice queen routine. She and Lil should get together and play Bridge."

Vera laughed. "Leroy said Renee had promised to be at his play-off game, night before she died. Six hours after she told James to meet her on that cliff. So how does she end up on the cliff?"

"She coulda canceled on her dad."

"We should pull her phone records, then. She wouldn't have done that, unless there was a mess she had to sort out. She and her dad were tight."

"A bigger mess than finding out your minister mom slept with another guy and got pregnant by him?"

"A bigger mess."

"Then let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes."

_**I was trying to fit James into this chapter, but it wasn't working. Reviews make me work faster. I'll probably have the next chapter by Wednesday.**_


	10. Chapter 10

**So, yeah. Next chappie. We have some LS, some case, another revelation. Enjoy.**

**Thanks to anothergirl, Artificially Sweet, and Longislanditalian2 for reviewing the last chapter.**

Lilly was nodding in and out of the entire three hour ride up to Penn State, but was keeping her head determinedly upright, trying not to alert Jeffries that she was less than alert herself. Five minutes here, seven minutes there, but Lilly didn't trust herself to sleep for all that long. It was a problem.

Vividly she remembered waking with a start on Scotty's shoulder on the train a few days ago. While he thought she had slept the whole six hours, she was, in fact awake less than ninety minutes in. He was knocked out, and, enjoying the heavy breaths into her blonde hair, she had thought it would be a shame to wake him. It had been companionable, nice even. A friendship gesture that she had enjoyed.

"You can stop pretending you aren't sleeping. We're here."

Lilly climbed sheepishly out the passenger seat, mussing her already mussed hair with her hand. One could tell that she had not been home for any extended period of time recently, because her hair was so wavy. She decided she liked it that way—she liked feeling womanly. Lilly realized for an instant that Chris also wore her hair that way, but for once, the thought of being like her sister didn't disgust her.

James lived in a notoriously raucous boys dorm, and that became painfully obvious as she walked the hall to his room. Invariably, she was whistled and cat-called at. The only place worse for a woman than a boys dorm hall, she decided, was a men's prison.

Jeffries knocked on door 57, and was immediately answered by a good-looking kid with Renee's gray eyes.

"Detectives Jeffries, Rush."

James stepped back to wave them into an immaculate living space. Whomever had raised James had obviously instilled in him the value of a clean house. Jeffries sat, but Rush busied herself at the medium sized book case above James's computer.

Jeffries began. "We're here about Renee Hutchinson, killed in 03."

"Who?"

Will let out a labored, annoyed breath. "You don't know her Frequented a coffee shop you worked at on 03?"

"I don't remember."

Lilly, in the meantime, was running her index finger over the large collection of books on the shelf. Mostly, there were standard guy classics, _Edgar Allen Poe's best, Confessions of Nat Turner, The Catcher in the Rye, The Awakening…_

Lilly got a "one of these things is not like the other" jingle in her head, and she pulled down the last book.

"Hey—put that back!"

Lilly's face was in an instant slick, charming, calm. "I seem to have touched a nerve."

"You can't just go through my stuff. She can't just…"

"I don't see anything," Jeffries informed him.

Opening the book, she noted the eraser marks where a name might previously have been written, and, in the middle of it was a picture of Renee, seemingly caught off guard, but smiling. Lilly snagged the picture, and brandished it in his face.

"You don't know her?"

James sighed, and sat down at a folding table next to his door. "I might have known her a little," he conceded, "She was just a girl I met at the shop one day, she left her book behind. That's all."

"And you kept her book for three years, her being just a girl you met at the shop? That's the story you're sticking with?"

"It's not a story."

Lilly left the bookshelf, walking circles around James, appraising him. James looked remarkable like Eli had in interrogation, as if something was on the tip of his tongue, something her was plainly dying to say.

"How could you downplay her like that?" Lilly's voice was soft, almost mothering, but she got no response.

"Well hey, she was only your sister, right? You only killed her, and why? What, were you, afraid?—jealous?—angry, that she got what you didn't?"

He didn't answer Will, either.

"You lured her to that cliff, and you killed her."

"No! No, it wasn't like that. I never hurt her, I never touched her."

"Then who did? James, if not you, then who?"

James put his eyes on his knees, determinedly silent. "I don't know."

"You were supposed to meet her that night. You telling us that's a coincidence?"

"I got a call from her cell that night, you can check. She canceled. I wish she hadn't. I wish I could have stopped it. I wish I could have stopped her."

Lilly was dawning comprehension. "You believe she killed herself."

James looked over at the clock, and rose swiftly from his chair. "She gave me the book—said she wanted to be rid of it, the 31st. Look, I've got a class in five."

The three went down into the parking lot, and James climbed into a nice, clearly new, red car, and drove off.

"So how does a college kid afford that?"

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A few minutes later, Jeffries and Lilly were walking back to the SUV. Lilly was still carrying the novel she had found in James's dorm.

"What's with the book, anyway?"

Lilly climbed back into her chair. "Its about an eighteenth century woman who has a bunch of self realizations. Ends with her jumping off a dock and killing herself."

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By the time Rush and Jeffries were back at the precinct, Vera and Valens were waist deep in Renee's cell phone records.

"November 1st, 2003. The phone veers completely off its usual course. Renee calls her mom at eight in the morning, but hangs up before any talking can get done. At one, she calls the florist. At three, she calls the church. At three fifteen, she calls her mom's office. At four, she calls Jayla at home… that's strange."

Lilly's voice rang across the precinct. "What's so strange about that?"

Scotty whipped his head around, surprised, and met Lilly's waiting blue eyes. "You should know, old head, that kids don't call each other at home any more. They use cell phones."

Lilly smiled at the term of endearment, but Scotty seemed completely unaware he had used it. He turned immediately away from her, and addressed Jeffries.

"Long ride?"

"Not so bad. Miss Rush is quite engaging company, and was filling me in on her love life."

At this point, Lilly would usually have informed Scotty that the conversation he was talking about was about how she _had_ no love life. But with his immediate shift in attention from her, she doubted he would care much, anyway. And so she said nothing.

Scotty frowned, but Lilly would not tell whether it was because of what Jeffries had said, or because he was thinking, because the very next second, he was murmuring case details to himself.

"We're missing something—someone. The father, who's James's father?"

"We don't know," Lilly replied, stiffly.

"We do know, I can feel it. Eli, Dante, Jayla… Jayla."

"I would certainly hope Jayla isn't her father."

Scotty laughed a little, in spite of his trance. "No, no they left so soon. Why leave?"

"Because Jayla was breaking down. She couldn't take it."

"But not letting her go to the funeral? That's extreme."

Lilly began picking up the pieces of Scotty's thoughts, as she was accustomed to doing. "You think they left because they were hiding something."

"Jayla said her parents never looked back. Her _parents _wanted to leave. Maybe the Hutchinson's aren't the only ones with family secrets."

Scotty tugged at the skin under his chin before continuing. "Why call Jayla at home? She wouldn't have been there anyway, she would have still been on the bus going home… it's a magnet school. The only people home would be Jayla's parents."

Scotty easily ran the distance to the computer, having a thought in his head that he didn't want to drop. He looked up Jayla's dad, Randall, on the computer, and turned around waiting for the search results to come up.

"What are you thinking, Scotty?" Lilly asked. The two had temporarily forgotten they were in an argument, but they always were that way while solving cases. So in sync that there was no time for anything else. Lilly and Scotty both depended on it—it was a trait that made their partnership worth the investment.

"I'm thinking, I don't know, maybe Jayla's dad is James's dad. It's out there, but it solves three problems—Kate's career change, why they moved away, and why James's dad isn't listed."

A beep indicated the search was done. "And would you look at that. In 85, Randall Myles was Kate Hutchinson's boss when she was still in the journalism field."

"He's James's dad. And Renee knew it, that's why she called."

Stillman exited his office and spoke, surprising the four who hadn't realized he's been listening.

"She's dead by seven that night, and he hustles his family out of Philly. Valens, it looks like you and Rush are going back to Boston."

**It's a bit of a leap, and a bit unbelievable. But hey, it's fanfiction. Reviews equal happiness.**


	11. Chapter 11

It was her first trip home in 30 hours, she realized. She had half an hour to high-tail it out of there and meet Valens down at the train station on 30th street. In her home, her clothes were manically separated, dark to light, underwear in the top drawer, tops in the next, and jeans in the next. Her closet played host to her more office oriented clothing, pressed button down tops and business suits. The one dress that she owned was a green silk one that hung on the back of her bedroom door.

She mechanically grabbed some black slacks and a pressed white top for later, and tee shirt and jeans just because. Besides her toothbrush and soap—Lilly didn't trust hotel soap—there was nothing else to bring.

Settling herself on her double bed, she picked up the photo of Renee from her night table. Renee had been stunningly beautiful, picturesque with her caramel skin, gray green eyes, and black hair. But beyond being as superficial as teenagers always were, Renee was the kind of girl that Lilly liked. As take-charge as a 16 year old could be, attempting valiantly to hold the pieces of her life together, whip-smart, observant, instinctive. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that her life had been ended so early—she might have had the misfortune of becoming a homicide detective. Maybe even working the cold ones, something Lilly needed for herself, but wouldn't dare wish on anyone else.

Forty minutes later, she was crammed up again on the aisle sear, next to Scotty. She never realized how tiny the space on Amtrak was until now, thinning her muscles to avoid touching him.

He noticed her discomfort and smiled at it in spite of himself. Valens recognized that he had been unreasonably angry at her for nothing, and now he kind of felt bad. Of course, Lilly didn't make the situation an more comfortable, any more warm, but he must have temporarily forgotten that he was dealing with Lilly Rush. The woman couldn't be warm for any extended amount of time, and it was time to resign himself to that fact.

He'd brought a peace offering, a bag full of Burger King for the two of them to share. "Hey, Lil," he called.

She turned and he saw that she, too, was holding a big bag of fast food. Hers was Taco Bell.

"I, uh, got you dinner."

"I, uh, got you dinner too," she mimicked him.

There was a brief uncomfortable silence, and Scotty was kind of worried. Four meals, and only two mouths. But he supposed there were many far worse problems.

"I feel like a taco," he lied. He hated taco bell.

"I feel like a burger," she replied, lying as well.

And so the two, sat, ate, and said nothing but the occasional grin that said everything.

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Far from the dive strip club where Jayla worked, was the Myles home. It was big enough to be called an estate, and as he neared it, Scotty wondered if it was one of those houses where he would have to be nervous about breaking things, and walk around without shoes. He hoped not.

The door opened. Randall Myles still had enough humility to get up and answer his own door. It told Scotty that there might just be a greater power.

Randal had a good fifteen years on the two of them, but it didn't stop him form undressing Rush with his eyes, and Scotty didn't like it. It wasn't like Ryan's blatant come-on's a few days ago—Ryan was a puppy. He had meant no harm. But Randall looked as if her would sooner swallow Lilly whole that talk to her, and he had a terrible urge to stand in front of her to shield her from him. But one look into her steel eyes told him that his heroic impulses were not needed. She could deal, could deal better than he could, most days.

"Detectives Rush, Valens."

His smile made Scotty flinch. And Randall was not looking anywhere near him- instead, his gaze, if it cold be called a "gaze" was glued on Rush.

"Sit, sit." The two sat. "Detective Rush, let me take your jacket." He didn't offer to take Scotty's.

"No, I'm fine, thanks."

"I must insist, you look warm."

_Like hell she does._ "No, I'm fine. Really."

"Miss Rush, it is perfectly acceptable to be too warm."

Valens _had_ to cut in. It was something built inside his genetic code, a need to protect, "his women". Lilly may not have liked it, but Scotty counted her in that number of protection. "She _said _she's fine!"

Lilly inconspicuously laid a hand on Scotty's chest to restrain him. The guy wasn't required to talk to them. If having one-sided eye-sex with Lilly would have to be their in, then so be it.

"I actually am a bit warm, thank you."

She slid out of her coat, and handed it over, ignoring the eyes on her milky skin, hips, and breasts. Scotty, on the other hand, looked like he might kill him. _Bless his little heart, _Lilly thought. Scotty wondered if Randall had pulled the coat stunt with Renee, but finally decided that Renee had been a kid. It was no wonder that Jayla was paying for college on her own, and working at a bar. Valens respect for the stripper went up a few notches.

"Now, detective, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

Randall still would not look at Scotty, but he accepted it. Just as Valens cowboy act worked with women, Lilly's sexy hard-to-get act worked with men.

"We're reinvestigating the 2003 death of Renee Hutchinson." Scotty wanted to smack the dreamy smile off of Randall's face, but restrained himself.

"Yes, yes, shame--she was so gorgeous." Randall licked his lips, and Scotty felt Lilly stiffen slightly beside him. Fucking slimeball. And if he snuck one more glance down his partners cleavage, he might just have to die.

"Well, gorgeous and all," Lilly recovered herself, "We know that she called you the day she died."

Randall's face was unreadable. "You're mistaken."

"Oh, come on. You remember. She called you because you had a baby with her mom."

"No."

"Yes, his name was James, and Renee knowing about it was going to ruin your life."

"It wasn't, because he wasn't my kid."

Lilly's eyes were wooden and her mind was spinning. This guy wasn't going to talk to her—she was a woman. Best duck out and let Valens get the details. Enter the overemotional, overzealous, female detective.

"Oh, but he was. You took advantage of Kate in 1985—"

"I don't need to take advantage of anyone."

"You took advantage of her, you tried to take advantage of Renee, and she wouldn't play ball, so you killed her. You knew she would screw up your perfect life, so you murdered a kid!"

"I most certainly didn't."

"You murdered a kid because she wouldn't do what you wanted. That why Jayla doesn't talk to you anymore?"

"Detective, you're getting a bit overexcited."

Scotty jumped in at will, recognizing the act. It was one of Lilly's best. "Lil? Lil, he's right, now, calm down."

Lilly whipped her head around, and stared Scotty down, hard. "Don't you speak to me like a child, what do I get next, the silent treatment?"

Scotty found inexplicable anger from somewhere deep inside him. He tackled his partner back. "The only one who gives the silent treatment is you!" Beads of infuriated sweat dripped down his forehead. "You decide when to rules apply and when they don't, and I'm the show pony. And I'm sick of it!"

Lilly fed off his energy, and got right up in his face. "You're the show pony? I have the eternal stigma of being the 'girl' and I'm tired of being gawked at when people find out I can actually function. I lead you around by the nose. You're the rookie cop! Not me. Need I list all your lapses in judgement?"

Scotty saw red, saw Ana and Chris, before doling out the final blow in a low, deadly voice. "It's no wonder you'll die alone. There ain't a man alive who would condescend to deal with you."

Lilly's eyes were swimming, half with summoned tears, and half from a feeling she couldn't place. "I have to use the facilities," she said, and ducked out, as had been her plan to begin with.

After her footsteps paled, Randall turned to Scotty and let out a low whistle. "Wow. Your partner's a cannon."

Scotty fumed, "She's got seniority, and won't ever let me forget my mistakes." It was way too close to the truth.

"But you like her. I can tell."

"I like _that_? Hostility ain't my scene, man." Like hell it wasn't.

"She's a sexy one. I couldn't work with that every day and not touch it."

Valens gave his jock smile. "Well, I mighta thought of dippin' in the company proceeds once or twice."

"As well you should. Men and women together in the workplace. There's times when a man just can't help himself."

"Was it like that with Kate?"

Randall gave a sly smile. "She was hot stuff. Had nothin' on her daughter, though."

Scotty had been grossed out before, but now wasn't because he was someone else. A sexist cop, a cop without empathy, a guy who could watch his beautiful partner walk out the door with tears in her eyes and not care. It wasn't the kind of man Scotty wanted to be, not by a long shot.

"So, did you get her pregnant?"

A good-humored smile. "Who knows, man?"

"So, did Renee call?"

"I already said she didn't."

It was a very thin line that Valens had to walk. Compel information, but still be a friend. "You're holdin' out on me. Her cell records say she called."

Randall seemed to consider, then shrugged. "Oh, hell. It ain't doing me no good, acting like I don't know anything. Renee didn't call me. Kate did, from Renee's phone."

And suddenly, it all made sense to him. The church. The florist. He mom's cell for thirty seconds. Kate had lost her cell phone and borrowed Renee's the day she died. "And what did she say?"

"She said she wanted to come over. She said she wanted to talk to me."

_Randall is sitting on a recliner in his Philadelphia house, watching a game on mute behind Kate's head. Kate is clearly nervous, bobbing around like a cork, holding a letter in her hand.  
_

"_What the hell do I do? He knows its me, he's been talking to Renee, he knows—"_

_Randall shrugs hugely. "Own up. Own up and leave me out of it."_

_Kate is incensed. "Leave you out? You're just as responsible as I was! More! I was twenty two years old and you were my boss!"_

_Randall crans his neck, trying to get a better view of the game behind Kate's head. "You would leave me out, if you know what's good for your family."_

"_Don't you talk about them! You've messed them up enough…"_

"_Maybe I should leave for a few days. Come back after it's all blown over."_

_Kate should be angry, but she's too tired for it. "Yes, yes, go. I'll fix it."_

_We see her picking Renee's red cell phone out of her pocket. "James? No, it's not Renee…"_

Scotty frowned, confused. "She talked to James? You serious?"

"Serious as a heart attack. But I never—I never thought she'd fix it like that. Her own daughter?"

Scotty rose, and Randall stood with him. Scotty would have preferred to touch a rattle snake, but shook his hand. "You tell that sexy partner of yours to call me any time, night or day."

With everything he had, Scotty swallowed his retort, and walked out of the front door.

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There was none of the rhetoric frequently enjoyed by the youngest Cold Case detectives that night in their hotel room. Lilly and Scotty still had on their Rush and Valens masks, as they sat on either side of the partition drawn before either of them were asleep. Scotty did not ask Lilly to go dancing as he had last time, did not speak to her, did not even acknowledge that there was a pretty woman ten feet away from him. As if afraid it would draw in pesky conversation, the TV was turned off, and on both sides of the room, the detectives were remembering bits of their staged argument.

There had been something dead about Lilly's face since then, it was dragging so low that if it was anyone else, Scotty would have worried about having to sweep pieces of it off the floor. But thank freaking god that Rush wasn't emotional. They could have systematically removed Scotty's knee caps with safety scissors, and Rush would have watched as idly as she might flip through a Cosmo magazine.

For three years, the two of them had been forging their paths in the Cold Case Squad, fighting for their roles within the partnership. But recently they had found their niche—Valens accepted that Rush wouldn't talk about her past, or her feelings, and would say horrible things if pushed to it. Rush accepted that Valens was cocky, slept with someone new every month, and made rookie mistakes.

Or at least, he's thought she did, but now, she wondered if she might just hold those mistakes against him. Ana, for one, last year. He hated to think about being called into the bosses office when he'd been caught in his lie. Lilly had been ice queen for three weeks after that, but she got over it.

That was the trouble with women. They said they forgot, but they never really forgot. Lilly's mousetrap mind had enough software to hold years and years if dirt on people. She might, if she liked, hold the fact that he had two slutty prom dates against him, after a fight with Alyssa. Or that he'd effectively lost the championship for his Little League team by striking out in the last inning when he was ten. Or whatever.

_Stop being such a goddamn woman. She just said it to get the guy to talk. _Scotty rolled over and peered out the cracked door. _Whatever! No matter what she thinks, they made you a detective for a reason—because you see things. You know what you saw._

And Scotty did know what he had seen, lurking behind Lilly's ocean eyes. The truth. She didn't see him as a complete fuck-up, but she did see him as someone she needed to watch. The fuck-up and the ice queen. It was too damn bad they made such good partners, because Rush and Valens magnified every insecurity in each other.

On the other side of the partition, Lilly was treading dangerous water. She hated to think about dying alone—it was for women on Oprah, or in self help groups, neither of which were her. Lilly couldn't imagine airing out her dirty laundry on a talk show. "Hi, I'm Lilly, I'm a great homicide detective, but I'm not good at anything else, and my partner, who I'm sorta-kinda-not-really attracted to agrees with that. Lilly swallowed with the effort of swallowing lye, and turned her pillow so that the cool side touched her cheek. Her even breaths suggested sleeping, but Scotty knew better—the two of them were gridlocked in stalemate, and there was no telling who, if anyone, was going to win.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Okay, so I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time. But I'm not abandoning this story. In this chap, we have LS bits, and lots and lots of case. There's a poem in here that I wrote. It's not my best, but it serves its purpose… so, anyway, enjoy.**_

People thought that John didn't notice what was going on with his detectives, but he saw everything. He didn't feel the need to announce that he did, but he knew when something was wrong, and there was something clearly wrong between Lilly and Scotty. And Stillman knew how they were, the huge fights weren't going to take them down, the fights about mistakes they made on cases, and other such things—no. They were young, sometimes painfully so, and nothing could rip the two of them apart better than a good personal fight. Two years ago with Rush's sister had taught him that, even though he wasn't really supposed to have noticed it.

Stillman had hoped that by sending his two youngest detectives to Boston, he would help to squash the ill feelings between them. After all, coming back a few days ago, he had never seen the two so amicable, so… comfortable. It made for a good working environment for the detectives to like each other on a personal level, years in the Philly PD had taught him that. And Rush and Valens had the makings of a detective all-star team—if they managed to make it to that place without killing each other first.

One look at the two trudging their way back into work that morning showed clearly that his ploy hadn't worked. Scotty, chivalrous by nature, did not hold the door for Lilly as he usually would have, but he doubted Lilly would have accepted the gesture anyway. Lilly didn't slow up her rapid strides to accommodate Scotty's jock walk, and everything about their positions screamed to the world that they were two separate detectives, not the dream team they had been for three years. Well, hell. You couldn't fix everything.

By now, Stillman had made his way over to their desks. "Well?"

"He's an ass," Lilly said at once, "An ass who thinks women are playthings."

So the guy had hit on her. An indulgent smile found its way onto John's lips. He liked all of his detectives, but he had a particular place for Lilly. She was the only girl, and one of the youngest, and thus became everyone's little sister. She hated that, and it struck John that that might be one of Valens' problems with her. He was used to happy women, giggling women, women who let him take the lead. And Lilly Rush as a person was not, and never would be, that type of person.

"Is he our killer?"

Lilly gave a shrug. "He's not above doing awful things for his own advancement. And people don't have much value to him. He could be."

John nodded to take that in, but Valens interjected. "He's not our killer. Renee never called him."

John turned, surprised by the vehemence in his voice. "And how do we know that?"

Lilly swiveled around in her chair, indeed, wondering how they knew that.

"Renee's mother, she went to see Randall that day. She had Renee's phone."

"So, all those calls…"

"Makes sense, doesn't it? Her mom's calls."

"Well," John said, "This changes everything. It means…"

"It means Kate knew Renee was going to be in that park."

Oh, man. Lilly was practically leaking fire out of her eyes, at eye level with Scotty's elbows. Any harder, and John swore that Scotty wouldn't have elbows anymore. He though about saying something to smooth it over, but ended up deciding that Rush and Valens were big kids. They'd have to either work it out, or—he didn't want to think of the alternative.

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Vera and Jeffries joined them at their desks after that, not noticing the war in Lilly's eyes. She didn't want them to notice it. She just wanted to murder her partner. Was that too much to ask for?

"Open forum," Lilly said. "Who's our killer?"

"James."

"James."

"James."

Jeffries gave a smile. "What about you, Lil?"

Lilly gave a labored sigh, and bit her lip, hard. She stared at a tiny speck on her desk, a stain from the Chinese food she and Scotty had shared a few days ago. Her eyes closed. She considered the players—Kate, James. Or suicide, which she doubted.

"The mother."

Lilly knew she took a dim view on mothers, but she'd earned her suspicion. And anyway, Kate had never struck her as a grieving mother. She had tried to forget Renee existed, tried harder than most people would have, as if she was trying to erase something else along with her. Like how she died in the first place.

"Why, Lil? Her own kid?"

Lilly shook her head a bit, blinking tears back. God, she needed to sleep. "Mothers have something in them. Resentment… some do, anyway. Kate has it. All that detachment… she could kill Renee and not realize the impact until later… months, years…mothers don't always mean the damage, at first."

Scotty temporarily forgot they were fighting, and put a hand on her shoulder. _It's okay, Lil,_ he wanted to say, but something in him couldn't. Lilly seemed to think of something, and abruptly turned to her computer.

A secretary came in, holding an envelope they all immediately recognized. The ME's results, in record time, if Scotty did say so himself.

"So, the residue on Renee's cheek," Scotty read, "Lipstick. And unless James has got some pretty big secrets, Kate was wearing it."

"What have you got, Lilly?"

She turned, and her three male counterparts saw inexorably that Detective Rush was back, and Lilly was gone.

"James's financial records. Me and Will, we couldn't believe that kids car. I mean, a college kid! You should've seen it."

"So?"

"So James has been getting five thousand dollars a year from an account under Kate Hutchinson's name."

Vera's eyes widened. "That bitch is paying him off! Is it too late to change my vote, Lil?"

"Never too late, Nick," Lilly replied, "Never too late."

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An hour later, they had James and Kate separated into different interrogation rooms, and stood outside, trying to devise the best play. Good detectives, Stillman had told them all, didn't just interrogate people without planning it. They had a blueprint, a map. It wasn't set in stone, but it kept the discussion on task.

"What do you think?"

Lilly had no pen, and chewed on her lip instead. "I'll take Kate," she said after a while. "Alone. The neglected kid routine. Guilt points, what do you think?"

The other three didn't say anything. None of them thought it was great for Lilly's overall psyche, but none of them could think of anything better.

"You take it, Lil," Stillman said. "But if it gets too much…"

She refused to even let him finish that sentence. "It won't." Lilly gave them a spicy smile, pulled a face, and disappeared into Kate's door.

Kate was head-to-toe neat, not a hair out of place, clothes so starched it was scary. Lilly hated mothers like that. She always assumed it meant they spent more time on their own fulfillment, and less on their children's. It was an unfair prejudice, but she wasn't sorry for it.

"There are a few things we need to straighten out, Kate."

"Things?"

"Minute details." That was how she'd play it, she decided. Get the small stuff, build it up, and go for the gold.

"The day Renee was murdered, she made a few really strange calls…"

"We don't know that."

Lilly smiled her saccharine smile. "Pardon?"

"We don't know that she was murdered."

"Right, right. Well, on the day she died she called your cell, did you talk to her?"

Kate screwed up her perfect face, clearly trying to remember the calls she had made.

"Yes, I talked to her."

"She called your church, too, any ideas why?"

"No."

"And the florist?"

"I don't know."

Lilly circled the room some more, and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Your office, her best friends house when she wasn't home, the florist, the church, James. Know what I think?"

"Enlighten me."

"I think she didn't have her phone that day. I think you did."

"No, she called me, remember?"

_Got her._ It was a reason Lilly did this job, to catch people in lies. Yes, all the justice and the redemption and the American way was nice too, but the looks on their faces… priceless.

"You have to wonder about people who lie about things that don't matter. The call was only ten seconds, you didn't talk to her. You didn't even pick up. You were calling your phone to look for it. That's not a crime, Kate."

Kate settled into her chair a bit.

_Time to give her an out, for a second. _ "I have a theory," Lilly said. "I think that people automatically lie to police officers because they think they'll get persecuted, or they do it out of spite, or whatever. It's a reflex. But I can assure you, Kate, I'm not here to make your life any more difficult than it has to be."

"I'm sorry, detective."

"So, you did have it?"

"I did."

It was coming together, Lilly could feel it. She could do this, she had to do this, and she was born to do this job.

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Vera was feeling more than just a bit impatient. He was a murder cop, and not only a murder cop, but a veteran one, for god sakes. Why, then, did people think that he didn't know when they were lying? He didn't get it.

James had a child's loyalty to his mother, even though she was using him, even though she had left him behind. Even though she had gone to drastic lengths to ensure that no one would ever find out about him. Vera didn't understand that, either.

"Why would you protect her? She's not gonna protect you, James."

"She's my mother, detective. And there's nothing to protect."

Vera shook his head more fervently. "She doesn't give a damn about you."

James swallowed, and his Adam's apple bobbed. Apparently, he knew that. "I don't want to talk about my mother anymore."

Nick nodded, he could take that. James would talk soon enough, with a little help from Rush and Kate. He figured it wouldn't hurt to soften him up for the blows.

"Okay, we don't have to talk about Kate. Let's talk about Renee."

James looked surprised, and it took Vera a second to understand why, before the answer smacked him, hard. He'd put Renee out of his mind as a person. He'd only known her for a few weeks, and she'd become more and more distant since then. Now, Kate was real to him, and Renee wasn't. Maybe that, Vera thought, was how he could live with himself. He could work that.

"What about her?"

Nick took the snapshot of Renee from _The Awakening._ James looked at it for a second, two. Then five. Then a minute, three.

"She wanted to write," he breathed. "She wanted to write stories and poems and essays that inspired people. The world just wasn't big enough for her."

Vera shuffled through a set of papers, and found a poem Renee had written, the September before her death, in the high school Literary magazine. It told of promise, it dripped with life. And it said exactly what James had just said about her. He began to read it out loud.

"'_Sometimes, when I ride in a car, I _

_think all the oxygen in the world _

_isn't enough for my giddy lungs._

_I run above the streets, and watch_

_the trees turn to clouds, and the sky-_

_scrapers to smoke. I am clear as _

_the click of a mouse, and engines_

_don't make enough gas to power me._

_As the wind strokes my hair, I_

_reach my hand through the window to reach_

_for nothing and everything. For_

_my dreams, which are mine, and _

_intangible as air. Sometimes, when I _

_ride in the car, I know the truth, _

_that I am ambitious,_

_and boundless'."_

"She could have done it, James," Vera said. "Done whatever she decided to."

James was crying in that way that said he was doing his damndest not to, and he looked up some. "She talked to me like I was _somebody, _you know?"

Vera knew.

Emotional interviews weren't exactly his forte, but he had an understanding of people. And people, he thought, by and large had an inherent sense of justice. "Then do right by her, James. Do right by her."

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"I wanna know something, Kate," Lilly said. "If you can help me."

Kate looked nonplussed. "I'll, uh—I'll help you any way I can."

Lilly stopped her pacing suddenly, and sat. Her long blonde hair streaked in her face, her pale skin was flushed, her dull eyes flashing, her top crimped and not ironed. Outside the box, Scotty shivered involuntarily. Lilly was beautiful, in this really unusual way. A shame it always hit him when she was shaken and haunted and didn't like him very much.

"I want to know…" She licked her lips, leaned up, and swallowed hard. "I want to know how you decide which of your children to murder for your sins."

_**One more chapter will wrap it up, guys! Then, probably an epilogue, because those are fun. I really like getting your reviews, so please keep them coming!**_


	13. Chapter 13

"Do right by her, James. Do right by her."

James's shoulders quaked, kept quaking for seconds, minutes. Vera hated this part—the waiting. The waiting to see if the bait he dangled had worked. He wasn't like Rush, she could wait minutes, hours, for the suspect to talk. She recognized that suspects had to think things over for themselves for a while, before confessing. She, in fact, enjoyed it—made funny faces at him through the two way mirror while waiting for them to talk. But Vera hated that. He wanted James to talk already, so he could get on with the next step.

It was hot in the room, and it was getting old. His blazer was sliding down his shoulders, and his tie was loosened, like it always was. It wasn't a professional look, but James sure as hell wasn't focused on what Nick looked like, so all the better.

He couldn't help himself. "James," he said, just to say something. "You can't hide from this for forever."

James's face came up, red, shaking, and indignant. In a minute, he gained back his composure. "I'm not hiding anything, detective."

Vera sighed, and looked to the ceiling for help. Suddenly, there was a knock on his window. It was time. Thank god, it was time.

"Get up, James. We're taking a field trip."

James got up, looking relieved. The exited the room, and Vera motioned for James to go on ahead, as he whispered fervently with Scotty.

"Lil's layin' it on thick."

"Yeah? Think we'll get it?"

"Thirty bucks says you will."

Vera knew better than to take him on. Scotty had an uncanny ability to know when a suspect would confess and when they wouldn't. Nine times out of ten he was right, and over the years, Vera had lost enough money on these bets to be wary of losing more.

"No sale."

They headed through the door where Lilly was sitting across from Kate. Neither spoke. Again, Vera wondered how Lilly dealt with that.

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"I want to know how you decide which of your children to murder for your sins."

There was a tandem swallow, a pulsing in the throat that all of them felt. Scotty watched, entranced. Lilly had a way of going further than most people would ever go in an interrogation, but somehow, she never went too far.

Kate whispered, with a shocked sort of vehemence, "What did you say to me?"

Lilly's voice got quieter, more husky. "You heard me."

"I don't have to stay here."

"So don't. The door's right there. Leave."

Kate started to get up, and walked to the door, before stopping. "I'd rather get this over with now."

Satisfied at having won the small victory, Lilly gestured toward the chair. "Then sit."

There was a knock on the window, to let Lilly know that Vera and James were out there. She breathed in, out.

"We know James was on that cliff, too."

"I wasn't there to start with."

Lilly frowned, and peered at Kate through her pale eyes. "So, who was there?"

"You're the police. You tell me."

Lilly got up from her chair, and feigned impatience. "You're just wasting my time. Maybe it's best you do leave."

"What?"

"You heard me. You go, and I'll figure it out on my own. Maybe some people in the church know, maybe your office. The neighborhood? I don't need you to tell me anything. I've got a whole community of sources—your community."

Kate was ruffled for the first time that day, and Lilly noted it. "No. No, don't. I don't need you poking around in my life. People will talk."

"I won't have to if you tell me what I need to know. Who was on the cliff?"

"Renee—James. I didn't know what would happen, I swear. I would have stopped it."

"Stopped who, Kate? James?"

"I'm not implying anything, I just know he's a troubled kid."

"He's your kid, Kate."

"I'm not to blame for his sins."

Scotty raised his eyebrows sardonically in James's direction. James looked shell-shocked, a bit queasy, and more that a bit uncertain. "You think she's protectin' you, James? Watch her. Watch her hang you out to dry."

"What sins, Kate?"

"I don't want to say."

Lilly nodded, and gestured again toward the door. A risky move, Scotty thought, but if Lilly didn't know what she was doing, nobody did. "You're wasting my time, Kate. Like I said. You can go. I think the neighborhood would help me better, now that I think about it."

"They can't help you."

"They obviously know more about your daughter than you ever cared to find out. So go, Kate. Or tell me something I can use."

Kate twisted up her face, and shifted in her seat. Lilly was gratified to see that she didn't stand. Another small victory.

"What sins did James have, Kate?"

Kate hesitated, before pouring it out, giving it her all. "He was jealous of Renee, so jealous, because I chose to raise her, and not him. He—he blamed her. He hated her, and he was on that cliff with her, and that's all I'm saying."

Scotty turned off the recorder of the interrogation, and looked at James, pointedly. "You think she's gonna choose you, James? She didn't choose you all those years ago, and she's not choosin' you now."

"Shut up."

Vera jumped in. "So what are you doing? You're sacrificin' everything you are, everything your real mother taught you to be, for a woman who murdered her daughter and is trying to blame you for it? Explain this to me James, because I don't get it."

James stared into the box, watching Kate lean over the table to say something to Rush. He looked away, and stared back, forcibly, crying hard.

"She's selling you out, James. She doesn't love you."

"Shut up!" He looked into the room again, closed his eyes. There was a resounding thwack as he kicked the door, and screamed, "Bitch! Bitch!"

"She doesn't love you, James, what's it gonna be?"

"Bitch!"

"Your sister, or this? She's paying you to cover your sisters death, James, don't let her do it anymore. She was your real family. She thought you were somebody."

James slapped his hands on his face, with force. His screaming was hysterical."What do you want to know? Tell me what to say!"

Got him. Vera smiled some, and looked directly in his face. "Tell us about the money, James. Tell us when it started."

James nodded, sliding down the wall onto the ground. "At the funeral," he said brokenly. "Her own daughters funeral, how sick is that?"

_James is wearing a black suit, and crying in the back row of the church. There is a Euology in his hands, with a picture of Renee that he snapped at the coffee shop a few weeks before. In the front row, Laina sits with her head in her hands, and Leroy blinks his tears back. Kate sits stoically, coldly. James recoils at the sight._

_Kate sees James, rises, and goes to the back row of the church. She puts her hand on his blazer sleeve—he jerks his arm away._

"_You okay?" she asks._

_James looks at her, incredulous. "Of course not. She's dead, we killed her, and everyone thinks it's a suicide. No, I'm not okay."_

"_You're fine. You're just in shock."_

"_I'm not in shock, I was there! I saw it happen!"_

"_Keep your voice down."_

"_You don't really mean for us to never say anything about this, do you? For god's sake, we've got to tell somebody! The police!"_

"_No, James. Who would that help? It won't bring her back."_

"_It'd do me some good. I need to tell, Kate, I have to."_

"_No. You hear me, James? No. Tell me what you want, I'll give it to you."_

_James mouth drops open, and he whispers fervently, "I don't have a price, Kate."_

"_No? Nothing you need?"_

"_No."_

"_Then do it for me. I'm your mother. I'll be there for you—you look out for me."_

"I—I don't know what happened after that. She started sending me checks, and I didn't want to use them, but—"

Scotty gave a cold nod. "But," he said, "That word explains every mistake in the world."

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There were three knocks on the door, and Lilly smiled her first real smile all day. Three knocks meant they got it. Two meant they didn't, and one meant they were still working on it. But she got three.

"Well, that's it, Kate." Lilly began to stand abruptly, and Kate reached out and latched on her sleeve.

"Wait. What?"

"James gave you up, Kate. He doesn't want to take your money anymore, he told us everything."

"You're lying."

"Am I? You never answered my question, Kate. How do you decide which of your kids to kill?"

Kate is silent.

"Well, as I said, we're done."

"Is there—you can't possibly think—I'm not a bad person."

Lilly took the invitation to conversation, and sat back down. "No? No, you just killed your daughter to save yourself, right? Well, you're a saint. I stand corrected."

"It wasn't—it wasn't like that."

Gold. "How else could it have been, Kate?"

Kate took in a heaving breath, and shrunk down into her chair. Her gray eyes—so much like Renee's—were swimmy. The hand with her wedding ring on it shook, and, impulsively, she ripped off the ring and dropped it on the table, gesturing to Lilly to look at it.

"This meant everything to me," she said.

"It's a ring," Lilly said. "How could that mean more to you than your own kid?"

"I never had it before I was married. It meant stability. Family. Protection."

Kate eyed Lilly's bare left hand, and Lilly said nothing. Kate continued, "You don't have a family, detective, but you want one. You're family's dysfunctional, right? You trust your partner, your boss, but you want something to go home to at night."

Scotty watched the scene, entranced. The woman obviously didn't know the first thing about the Lilly he knew. Lilly didn't trust anyone, and she didn't want to.

Lilly considered a bit, before deciding to play ball. "My mom wasn't there for me. I'm not married. My sister and I don't talk, because it's her fault I'm not married."

Kate nodded. "I never had anything before I had a family, and I would have done anything to keep my family. But James, James was getting in the way."

Lilly waited.

"It wasn't—it wasn't supposed to be Renee. Never my girl."

Lilly was finally understanding. "You didn't go up there for Renee. You went up there for James."

Kate broke then, crying into the table. "I just thought that—I thought that it would be so much easier if—if James never left the cliff. I should have known better. Renee could never leave anybody out in the cold. She was everything I wasn't. She was brave."

**November 1st, 2003**

_Kate stands on the cliff, fingering her wedding ring. She wears an oversized jacket—her husband's jacket—and waits for James to climb up to the cliff. _

"_Kate," he says, when he sees her. "I've been—"_

_She silences him with a look. "James, I came here for a reason. A very specific reason. I need you to stop this."_

"_Stop what?"_

_Kate gestures wildly around her. "This! This, trying to hang out with Renee, this trying to meet me. It's just—it's messing up our lives, don't you see that?"_

_Renee rounds a corner, and makes her way to the top. "Mom?"_

_Kate whips her head around. "I want you to go home, honey."_

_James shakes his head. "No, Renee! Stay. You're just in time for the part about how I'm ruining your lives."_

"_Mom!"_

"_Renee, you don't understand everything." She turns, and walks towards James. He backs up and gets closer to the cliff's edge. "James, you need to understand, you need to…"_

"_I've spent my whole life feeling like I didn't belong anywhere! I can't give this up now, this is a chance."_

_She walks further to him, a dangerous look in her eye. He backs up more. "It's not a chance. Do you hear me? I've worked too hard to see my life and my family fucked up by a mistake I made twenty years ago!"_

_He turn his back to her. "I'm not a mistake. And you'd best get used to seeing me, at your office, with your daughter, in your church, telling everybody who I am."_

_Kate lunges at him, eyes closed, and Renee jumps to push James away. Kate's hands shove her shoulders instead, and, as James turns around, he sees Renee sailing off the cliff._

_Kate's eyes snap open, to see James, screaming at her right, and no Renee. _

"_You pushed her!" James screams frantically. _

_Kate runs down the other side of the cliff to where her daughter lays, in the stream. Shaking, she kisses her cheek, as James appears beside her. "I didn't do anything, James," she says. "I didn't do anything."_

Lilly sat, knowing this was the part where she arrested the bad guy and went home, feeling pretty good about herself. She didn't do that. She sat. She sat, legs shaking, staring at Kate, until Scotty seemed to get wind this was not a part of the plan. He burst into the room in his typical Valens-bursting fashion, and nodded at Lilly to go.

_It's okay, Lilly._

And he actually said it this time.

_**There will be an epilogue. Any reviews are still appreciated.**_


	14. Chapter 14

Scotty realized, sitting in a dim restaurant/bar on South street why he never spent any time at home.

It wasn't alive enough for him.

He'd moved after Elisa died, because he was tired of seeing her everywhere—Elisa frying burnt chicken in his kitchen, Elisa primping in the bathroom mirror, Elisa rising to kiss him as he entered the front door. And so, he moved to the most Elisa free space he could find, clear across town. There was no Elisa in his kitchen, or in his bathroom, or on his couch, but there was nothing else there, either.

And sitting in this bar, he wondered acutely if that was why Lilly never spent any time at home. She'd bought an expensive two story house in Olde City on a Philly PD salary (next to nothing) and she never seemed to want to be there. He'd never understood it until now—being there meant facing up to her mother, her crap childhood, the victims. Who wanted to do that?

She was sitting across the room from him, daintily sipping a corona. Occasionally she would peruse the menu, but she would always decide to order another drink when her waiter came around.

Scotty knew she couldn't see him. She was too far away in the day they'd had, searching for a resolution. Scotty knew better. There were no resolutions after days like these. There were coronas and cigars and pretty bar tenders, but no resolutions.

Her birthday was tomorrow. He smiled a little, remembering her last one. He'd asked her how she planned to celebrate, and she's leveled him with a stare.

"Scotty," she'd said. "I'm thirty-six, I'm single. I'm going to spend quality time with my good friend, alcohol."

He'd asked her if she wanted company. She'd said no. Two months later, on his thirty-second, he found himself celebrating in the same way. What was it with marking occasions with beer? He used to go out on dates, go play pool, go dancing. What had happened to that?

His waitress, an older woman with dark skin, bobbed around his shoulder. "Can I get you something?"

Scotty thought a moment, then leaned conspiratorially toward her. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Name it."

"Can you get a piece of chocolate cake and give it to the lady over there?"

The waitress looked at Lilly, knowingly. "You're a smart one, boy. Chocolate's the fastest way to a lady's heart."

She was gone in back in two minutes flat, and laid a huge piece of chocolate cake in front of Lilly's rather surprised form. "From the gentleman over there," she said, to find Scotty was gone.

She looked wary of eating it, he noted. She probably thought it was some creepy guy hitting on her. And who knew? Maybe he was some creepy guy hitting on her.

"Happy Birthday, Lil," he said from behind her.

She whipped her head around, before relaxing into a slow smile. An artificial one, but hell, she was trying.

"You know I hate to celebrate the passage of time."

"I know old-head. Humor me."

She put the tiniest piece of cake on her fork, and brought it, slowly, to her lips. The gesture would have been seductive, if he wasn't acutely aware that Lilly had no interest in seducing him. The thought was depressing, but he couldn't imagine Lilly willfully seducing anyone, period.

"Rough day," he said to no one in particular.

She nodded, and he tilted his head to look at her. She was guarded, all formality. Grateful for the company, sure, but not if it meant she had to talk.

"You played her good, Lil. You got to her."

"I just really wanted to get this one."

That was an in, and he took it. "Why?"

Lilly considered, pouting her lips and dragging her spoon over her plate. She seemed to consider several options before responding simply, "I liked her."

"Liked who?"

"Renee."

Scotty couldn't help his sigh. He was in no position to judge her for being too close to her cases, but she did it to a point that it was almost a detriment. Her brilliance as a detective came from her ability to launch herself into a victims life—effortlessly she became someone's wife, mother, daughter. It made her solve rate among the highest in the force, but also made her frustrated that she couldn't save the victims.

"Lilly, you didn't know Renee."

"I know, I just—You know what I mean," she conceded.

"I do." He paused, before timidly putting in, "Your mother wasn't like that, Lil."

She sighed, and took a sip of her corona. She mulled over what he said for a minute, and he was quiet to let her think. "I know," she seemed to say from a far away place.

"So you can put that thought away."

Lilly smiled, a small smile, but not a fake one. "Look how observant you've become, Valens. Must be my influence."

"Must be." He grabbed her vacant fork, and stuffed some of her cake into his mouth. "Not bad," he said.

Lilly grinned a little, watching him. Sometimes—lots of times, really—his boyishness annoyed her. She felt like screaming at him to just grow up already, but growing up meant losing a lot of his charm, and his charm was what made her crave his company.

"What'cha lookin' at, old head?"

She averted her eyes. "The drapes."

"Those must be some attractive drapes."

Arrogant as always. It made her laugh. " They're okay."

He turned his head in the other direction, feigning offense. "And here I came bearing cake! That's not enough?"

"If that's your A game? No. Not even close."

He raised and eyebrow, and stared at her. "You haven't even seen my A game."

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

An hour later, Lilly wanted to drive home. Having downed three corona's, it wasn't an option. Scotty wanted to drive her home, but he couldn't drive a stick. ("What are you? fifteen? What do you mean you can't?") SEPTA at night was unreliable and unsafe, ("I got a gun, for chrissake, Scotty!" "What good's that if you can't stand straight?") and so it left the two of them sharing a cab.

Lilly with a few drinks in her was almost the same as Lilly without them, except she was decidedly less stiff. Her speech was only slightly more slurred than usual, and her voice retained normal volume. But Lilly with alcohol had no problem putting her head on his shoulder to see out the back window, something sober Lilly wouldn't have dreamed of.

He liked drunk Lilly. She reminded him of the Lilly he'd become acquainted with in Boston.

"Hey, Scotty," came her voice in the pitch dark.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry." It covered nothing and everything, and made Scotty laugh. Who knew the way to get Lilly to apologize was to get her drunk?

"Yeah, me too."

Nothing else needed to be said.

They pulled up to her house, and she looked almost sad to see it. Maybe his theory was right. He signaled to the driver to wait, and walked with Lilly to her door. She didn't need him too, really, but it seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do, and Scotty got chivalrous urges. Blame his mother.

She fumbled with her keys, trying a wrong one, another wrong one, another wrong one.

"Jesus Christ, Lil, what do you need with all those keys?"

She shot him a look. "I don't like being locked out."

It was cryptic, but he liked that. Lilly seemed to always leave him working out something she had said.

Just when it seemed like they were going to be out there all night, she slid the right key into the door. It opened. She stood on the stoop for and extra second, and it gave Scotty time to hug her.

It was a plus, really, hugging drunk Lilly, because she hugged back. She dropped a chaste kiss on his cheek that could have been mistaken for a graze, but he took it. She was his friend, one of the best he had, and he took all the gray area, all the uncertainty, because he had to to benefit from the good things. And Lilly had a lot of good things.

"Night, Scotty."

"Night, old head."

She gave him a little smile, and a sweet nod of her head, before closing the door behind her.

And suddenly, going home didn't seem all that bad.

_**And so, it ends. I'm sorry if anyone really wanted a shippy ending, I just couldn't do it. You can imagine, though. : ) **_

_**Thanks to all the reviewers: Leo1312, Seeingstars27, Heidi, Longislanditalian2, dddynamite, Springdreaming, Henabrey, anothergirl, artificiallysweet, Theonlycuban1, MaryRose, and Jambled. **_

_**I really, really appreciate it.**_


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